European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

“A STUDY TO ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE REGARDING ADVERSE EFFECT OF GUTKHA CONSUMPTION AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS IN SELECTED COLLEGES OF MANGALURU”

Sharon Ashok, Shilpa Santhosh, Shoji Mol S., Shynu Koshy, Siji U., Sneha Baby, Savitha Naik* and Leena K. C.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: A recent research has found that the deaths occurring due to tobacco and its products use increasing in our country. Gutkha can be defined as a devil in disguise mouth fresheners, this betal nuts and tobacco preparation is designed to release a chemical reaction that makes it an addictive preposition. However, most consumers believe that the seasonings do not make it as a harmful product. The only way to stop the consumption is by educating the masses. Also one must understand that it needs equal persuasion, guidance‟s and support to help someone quit from this habit. It is not only the numbers that is disturbing, but also the fact that most Gutkha users are unaware of the fact that it us an addictive and harmful habit. Objectives: The study was carried out to determine the knowledge scores regarding the adverse effect of Gutkha consumption among college students and to find the association between the adverse effect of Gutkha consumption with demographic variables. Materials and method: A descriptive survey approach was used in the study, non probability purposive sampling technique was used for selecting the samples. 100 college students from selected colleges in Mangaluru were selected as the samples for the study. Data collected from the samples were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. Result: The study result showed that majority (29%) of the subjects are having poor knowledge and only (20%) of the subjects are having excellent knowledge regarding adverse effect of Gutkha consumption. There is no significant association between knowledge score and baseline characteristics in terms of age, gender, educational status, place of stay, residence, type of family, socio economic status and source of information regarding Gutkha. Hence research hypothesis is rejected. Conclusion: The study concluded that 29% of the students are having poor knowledge and only 20% of the subjects are with excellent knowledge. Hence it can be inferred that H1 is saying that there is a significant association between knowledge scores and selected demographic variables.

Keywords: Knowledge, Adverse effect, Gutkha, Consumption.