Factors associated with tobacco consumption behavior of adolescent students

Although consumption of tobacco is attributed to 8 million deaths of people each year in the world, the consumption of tobacco by adolescent students in Nepal is seen in alarming stage. This paper aims to describe tobacco consumption behavior of adolescent students and its associated factors. For the study, cross-sectional survey design was followed. Students of community schools of Class 10 of Hanumannagar Kankalini Municipality, Saptari were the population of the study. Probability proportional to size method was used to select students. Sample size was 235 but only 225 were included in analysis due to incompleteness of questionnaire of 10 students. Self-administered anonymous questionnaire was used to collect data. Frequency and percentage; and chi-square test were used to analyze descriptive data and inferential data, respectively. Proportion of students who consumed tobacco was 24% (boy-18.7%, girl-5.3%). Sex of students and education of parents were significantly associated with tobacco consumption behavior of students. It is concluded that sex of students, and tobacco consumption behavior of parents are associated factors for high prevalence of tobacco consumption among adolescent students. It should be minimized by promoting girl as role model and educating parents of students.