Abstract :
Background: Tobacco use is responsible for around six million fatalities globally each year. Younger people suffer more pronounced consequences, including impaired physical performance, dependency, and a gateway to other substances. Almost every organ in the body, including the lungs, head and neck, bladder, kidney, liver, stomach, pancreas, colon, and rectum, might develop cancer as a result of tobacco smoking. Smoking is responsible for about nine out of every ten instances of lung cancer. Globally, lung cancer claims the lives of over a million people each year.
Objectives: The study's goals to evaluate college students' perceptions, attitudes, and understanding about the harmful effects of tobacco.
Materials and Methods: This study is an interventional cross-sectional community-based study. The students of pharmacy, nursing, and engineering from various colleges belonging to 18-24 years were chosen based on the interests of the students. The information was gathered through the use of self-administered questionnaire. The (SPSS) version 25.0 was used to examine the data.
Results: 453 students participated in the study; 74.39% of them knew the ill effects of tobacco use.58.5% had a positive attitude towards the ill effects of tobacco, and 58.8% had a positive perception of the ill effects of tobacco. A chi square analysis displays a statistically significant association between smoking behaviour and knowledge, attitude, and perception.
Conclusion: The study highlights the necessity of educational initiatives to acquire more knowledge, attitude, and perception of tobacco and its ill effects by removing all the barriers. Awareness needs to be increased among the students.
Keyword :
Tobacco, Students, Knowledge, Attitude, Perceptinos