Dimapur has the highest number of tobacco consumers in the State.
Confirming this, health & family welfare joint director and National Tobacco Control Programme’s (NTCP) State nodal officer Dr Chiekroshuyi Tetseo told Nagaland Post that Dimapur district has the highest tobacco consumers in the State owing to mixed population and larger social acceptance.
He said 54.1% of the total tobacco consumers in the State were men, 31.7% women, while 43.3% of adults (15 years and above) either smoked or used smokeless tobacco. He claimed that the period 2010-2015 recorded the highest number of tobacco consumption in the State.
As per Global Adult Tobacco Survey-2 (GATs), 25% of men and 0.5% of women currently smoked tobacco, while 46% men and 31.5% women either smoked or used smokeless tobacco. Further, 54.1% men and 31.7% women either smoked tobacco or used smokeless tobacco.
Age-wise, 47.6 % in 25-44 years category use smokeless tobacco and 17.3% in 45-65 years smoke tobacco. Pan masala with tobacco and betel quid with tobacco are the most commonly used tobacco products as 21% of adults use pan masala with tobacco and 17.5% use betel quid with tobacco.
Asked about the ill-effects on health of tobacco users, Tetseo said this led to ailments like cancer, cardiac vascular diseases, emphysema, diabetes, infertility, etc, affecting all parts of the body. He explained that the main reason behind developing an addiction for tobacco was due to the presence of nicotine, which was very addictive in nature.
Regarding treatment of the addicts, NTCP’s State nodal officer said one could go to tobacco cessation centres (TCC) in district hospitals, pointing out that even if TCC was not available, dental OPDs provided intervention services. He said they could also consult private medical practitioners.
And in order to eradicate the consumption of tobacco in the State, Tetseo said focussed group discussions (FGDs) were being strengthened in all NTCP districts. “We have also been conducting awareness in schools and communities and have been strengthening enforcement to reduce easy accessibility,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, in what could be a silver-lining, the State witnessed a decline in tobacco consumption as per GATs factsheet.
GATs-2 showed that there had been a significant decrease in the prevalence of smoking (by 18.3 percentage points) and smokeless tobacco (by 6.3 percentage points).
Similarly, the percentage of any tobacco use also decreased significantly from 56.8% in GATS-1 to 43.3% in GATs-2.
But, in a worrisome development, the mean age of initiation of tobacco use too decreased from 18.5% years in GATs-1 to 17.2 years in GATS-2.