Tobacco use among daily wage laborers in the city of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.

Background: Tobacco use is a significant risk factor of many chronic diseases like lung cancer, coronary heart diseases, stroke, oral cancer etc., which are preventable. It is evident from various studies that tobacco consumption is higher among those from low socioeconomic status, poor and marginalized groups of the society. Objective: To determine the prevalence of tobacco use among daily wage laborers in Bhubaneswar. Methodology: A cross-sectional study involving 212 daily wage laborers selected from six randomly selected waiting places in Bhubaneswar was conducted. Using a pretested structured schedule, all relevant information was obtained. Result and discussion: The overall prevalence of tobacco use was 88.7%, which is much higher as compared to that of the general population. The prevalence of smoked and smokeless tobacco was found to be 58.0 and 68.9% respectively. Reason for initiation of tobacco consumption was primarily feeling pleasure followed by peer pressure. Smoked tobacco was the preferred method of tobacco consumption among the older subjects, whereas chewing tobacco was more popular among the younger subjects. More female laborers were consuming smokeless tobacco as compared to smoked tobacco, whereas the rate of consumption of both the forms was almost same in case of males. Bidi (57.7%) and Gutkha (60.9%) were the most frequently used smoked and smokeless forms of tobacco among the workers. There is an urgent need of intervention measures to arrest the rising trend of tobacco use among the labor classes, thereby reducing the future burden of tobacco related morbidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]