Jump to full article: Daily Times (pk), 2007-09-16
Intro: In a study, 21 percent of medical students were found to chew tobacco in some form or another in their lifetime, raising concern that future doctors would not be able to influence their patients to give up smoking. The study appeared in BMC Public Health on Sept 3.
Chewing tobacco is common in South Asia. Tobacco is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Doctors make one of the best avenues to influence patients' tobacco use. However, medical students addicted to tobacco are likely to retain this habit as physicians and are unlikely to counsel patients against using tobacco. With this background, this study was conducted with the objective of determining the prevalence of chewing tobacco among Pakistani medical students.
A cross sectional study was carried out in three medical colleges of Pakistan . . .
The use of chewing tobacco among medical students cannot be ignored. The governments should add the goal of eliminating chewing tobacco to existing drives against cigarette smoking. Drives in Karachi should focus more on eliminating paan usage while those in NWFP should focus more on the use of naswar. Medical colleges should provide greater education about the myths and hazards of chewing tobacco.
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