Tobacco use down to 12.7% in kerala: Study

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Global Audit Tobacco Survey has found that tobacco use in Kerala has come down to 12.7% in 2016-17 from 21.4% in 2009-10. The report was released by health minister K K Shailaja. This is the second survey released by GATS on Kerala, the first being for the 2009-10 period.

The report has said that there is a need for further reducing the use of tobacco for which the government has to come out with more awareness programmes. However, the report says that the smoking habit has come down to 9.3% among those who are above 15 years of age. It was 13.4% in the previous survey.

The use of chewing tobacco has come down to 5.4% from 10.7%. Cigarettes and chewing tobacco are the two products widely used by the people here. It is estimated that while 6.7% people smoke cigarettes, 4.4% use chewing tobacco.

GATS had carried out a house-to-house survey with the support of the World Health Organisation, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and ministry of health and family welfare.

The survey conducted between August 2016 and February 2017, covered people above 15 years of age. The sample size of the survey was 783 males and 1,403 females.

The use of tobacco among people in the 15-17 age group has come down from 3.7% to 3.1%. The average age of the first-time tobacco users is 20.8 in the present survey while it was 18.6 in the first survey.

The GATS-2 survey has also found that the number of people affected by passive smoking has also come down. In public places it has come down to 13.7% from 18.7% and in houses it has come down to 16% from 41.8%. However, in work places, the percentage of passive smoking-affected people has gone up to 20.8 from 17.5.

The survey found that 79.3% of the smokers wanted to quit and 67.2% of those who chew tobacco also wanted to kick the habit.

Health minister Shaliaja said the survey points towards the success of the campaign against tobacco use in the state. The government will further strengthen the activities to bring down the tobacco usage further. The health department has already started a series of awareness programmes in all districts.