Tobacco consumption among high school students in Kathmandu, Nepal

Introduction Tobacco use both in smoking and non-smoking form has been the leading global cause of preventable death, contributing to seven million people deaths each year. This study aims to find the tobacco use status among students and their family members and similarly the objective of the study was to assess the tobacco use prevalence among students of public schools in a municipality of Kathmandu, Nepal. Methods The study was school based survey that used two stage cluster sampling method. 378 students participated in the study. Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) self-administered questionnaire was employed to collect the data. Descriptive analysis was performed by determining frequencies and percentages. Ethical clearance for the study was obtained from Institutional Review Board of Institute of Medicine, Nepal. Results The study revealed that students who were ever used any tobacco were 31.7%. Boys (23.3%) are three times more likely than girls (8.5%) to ever use any tobacco products. Conclusions Tobacco use was high prevalent among the high school students, so it is a public health problem among school students in Nepal. These finding alarms the need of school based interventions to reduce tobacco use behavior among students. Keywords: Tobacco use, students, Nepal