Magnitude and socio-economic effects of tobacco use among youths in resource limited settings

Tobacco use continue to endanger the health and welfare of youths globally. Tobacco use poses a threat to economic and social development. The dependence on tobacco is often aggravated by low socio-economic development status, which undermines human socio economic development especially in resource limited settings. Despite the problems caused by tobacco use, the magnitude and effects among youths in is not known. Main objective was to determine magnitude and socio-economic effects of tobacco use among youths while specific objectives were to determine the level of tobacco use, contributing factors to tobacco use and the perceived effects of use among youths in resource limited settings. The study utilized a cross-sectional study design. A total of 415 youths aged 15-24 were involved in the study. Simple random sampling was used to select study participants. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data and focused group discussion guide for qualitative data. Reliability and validity of tools were tested. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS. Chi- Square and Odds Ratio were used to test for significance of association. 36.6 % of the respondents reported to be currently using tobacco. Majority used sniffed tobacco (24.1%) while cigarettes smoking was 12.5%. Tobacco use and gender of the respondents was statistically significant at 95% confidence level with χ²=107.0; df =1; p=0.0001. Odds Ratio showed that males were 7.5 times more likely to use tobacco than female. Main source of tobacco was in markets (78%) and from friends (22%). Sniffed tobacco was the most readily available. Peer pressure was reported by 48% as the main factor that drives youths to tobacco use. 56.6% of the respondents did not know of any health effects of tobacco use. The recommended intervention included awareness creation, reduction of accessibility to tobacco, health education and functional youth friendly centres