Suman Bahadur Singh

Tobacco use and associated factors among adolescent students in Dharan, Eastern Nepal: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey

Introduction The tobacco use among the youth, in both smoking and smokeless forms, is quite high in the South East Asian region. Tobacco use is a major proven risk factor and contributes substantially to the rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases. Objectives To estimate the prevalence of tobacco use and determine associated factors among adolescent students of Dharan municipality. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Secondary and higher secondary schools of Dharan municipality in Sunsari district of Nepal. Participants Students in middle (14–15 years) and late adolescence (16–19 years) from grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 were included. Primary outcome measure Ever tobacco use which was defined as one who had not used any form of tobacco in the past 1 month but had tried in the past. Methodology Self-administered questionnaire adapted from Global Youth Tobacco Survey was used to assess tobacco use among the representative sample of 1312 adolescent students selected by stratified random sampling from July 2011 to July 2012. Results Out of 1454 students, 1312 students completed the questionnaires with a response rate of 90.23%. Prevalence of ever use of any tobacco product was 19.7% (95% CI 17.7 to 21.6). More than half of the tobacco users (51.9%) consumed tobacco in public places whereas almost a third (75.6%) of the consumers purchased tobacco from shops. Multivariate analysis showed that tobacco use was associated with late adolescence (OR: 1.64; 95% CI 1.17 to 2.28), male gender (OR: 12.20; 95% CI 7.78 to 19.14), type of school (OR=1.72; 95% CI 1.01 to 2.94), Janajati ethnicity (OR: 2.05; 95% CI 1.39 to 3.01) and receiving pocket money ≥Nepalese rupees 500/month (OR: 1.45; 95% CI 1.04 to 2.03). Conclusions Tobacco-focused interventions are required for school/college going students to promote cessation among users and prevent initiation, focussing on late adolescence, male gender, government schools, Janajati ethnicity and higher amount of pocket money.

Awareness of occupational hazards and use of safety measures among welders: a cross-sectional study from eastern Nepal

Objective The proper use of safety measures by welders is an important way of preventing and/or reducing a variety of health hazards that they are exposed to during welding. There is a lack of knowledge about hazards and personal protective equipments (PPEs) and the use of PPE among the welders in Nepal is limited. We designed a study to assess welders’ awareness of hazards and PPE, and the use of PPE among the welders of eastern Nepal and to find a possible correlation between awareness and use of PPE among them. Materials and methods A cross-sectional study of 300 welders selected by simple random sampling from three districts of eastern Nepal was conducted using a semistructured questionnaire. Data regarding age, education level, duration of employment, awareness of hazards, safety measures and the actual use of safety measures were recorded. Results Overall, 272 (90.7%) welders were aware of at least one hazard of welding and a similar proportion of welders were aware of at least one PPE. However, only 47.7% used one or more types of PPE. Education and duration of employment were significantly associated with the awareness of hazards and of PPE and its use. The welders who reported using PPE during welding were two times more likely to have been aware of hazards (OR=2.52, 95% CI 1.09 to 5.81) and five times more likely to have been aware of PPE compared with the welders who did not report the use of PPE (OR=5.13, 95% CI 2.34 to 11.26). Conclusions The welders using PPE were those who were aware of hazards and PPE. There is a gap between being aware of hazards and PPE (90%) and use of PPE (47%) at work. Further research is needed to identify the underlying factors leading to low utilisation of PPE despite the welders of eastern Nepal being knowledgeable of it.

Psychosocial Problems among Adolescent Students: An Exploratory Study in the Central Region of Nepal

Background Recently, schools have drawn attention as dominant factors for psychosocial development of students. Nepal, however, has limited studies on this issue. This study sought to assess the prevalence of psychosocial dysfunction and its association with family-related factors among adolescent Nepali students. Methods Taking 787 adolescent students from 13 schools of Hetauda municipality, we accomplished a cross-sectional study. A set of structured questionnaire and Y-PSC was adopted to collect data, which were analyzed using SPSS with 95% of confidence interval. Results One-fifth (17.03%) adolescent students suffered with psychosocial dysfunction. Male students (9.50%) were more affected, compared to female students (7.80%). The proportion of psychosocial dysfunction rose with the rise in age group and grade. Frequency of family dispute was significantly associated with psychosocial dysfunction OR = 13.24 (95% CI: 2.27–17.23). Conclusion Interventions on psychosocial dysfunction need a great start, targeting adolescents, their caregivers, and community stakeholders, with a special emphasis on the school setting.