Abstract
Background: Globally adolescent population is around 1200 million and out of six person, every one person is in adolescence (aged10 to 19 years) period (1). Yet most of them are healthy, but premature death, illness and injury among them can hinder ability to grow and develop to their full potential. It is estimated that 1.2 million adolescents died in 2015 and mostly from preventable or treatable causes. Tobacco consumption is world's leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. National Family Health Survey conducted in year 2016-17 reported tobacco consumption prevalence 38.9% in urban area and 48% in rural area of India. Method: It was a community based cross-sectional study conducted in eight villages of Wardha district adopted under Community Health Care program run by department of community medicine. Data was collected by interview from 485 adolescent in the age group of 10-19 years by domiciliary visits using pre-designed pre-tested questionnaire from the period October 2016 to October 2018. Results: Prevalence of tobacco use (all forms), smokeless tobacco use and smoking in rural adolescents were 20.82%, 20.41%, and 2.68%, respectively. Prevalence of tobacco use in boys (30.29%) was more than girls (4.49%). Higher Prevalence was found in late adolescent period. Bidi was commonly used form of smoke tobacco while Kharra was the preferred smokeless tobacco. Almost all smokers were male but few exceptions were there. Conclusion: The prevalence of tobacco use among rural adolescents was very high (20.82%) as compared to national prevalence of 14.6% according to the global youth tobacco survey India 2009. There is a need of early intervention for tobacco cessation as overall mean age of 1st experienced to tobacco consumption was 12.02 years and in male and female users it was 12.25 years and 10.88 years respectively. 42.10 % adolescents 1st time experienced any type of tobacco products when they were in the 12-14 years age and only 0.66% adolescents experienced at the age of 17 -19 years. Maximum male (42.19%) and female (41.67%) ever user experienced their 1st tobacco consumption when they were 12-14 years old.