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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2014 | Volume
: 1
| Issue : 4 | Page : 297 |
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Tobacco use and knowledge, attitude, and practice study
Kanica Kaushal
Department of Community Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India
| Date of Web Publication | 16-Oct-2014 |
Correspondence Address:
Kanica Kaushal
Department of Community Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/2348-3334.143012
How to cite this article:
Kaushal K. Tobacco use and knowledge, attitude, and practice study. CHRISMED J Health Res 2014;1:297 |
Sir,
This is in reference to the article, "tobacco use among teenagers in Ludhiana, Punjab, India: A survey of initiation, prevalence, knowledge, and attitude" published in CHRISMED J Health Res 2014; 1:176-9. [1]
The authors have done a commendable job to determine the prevalence of tobacco use, the age of initiation, factors leading to initiation, and the knowledge about the health hazards caused by tobacco use among adolescents in the city of Ludhiana, Punjab. The authors have conducted a cross-sectional study among 400 adolescents by conducting a school- and community-based survey in Ludhiana, Punjab, India.
However, I have a few concerns regarding the methodology adopted by the authors in the present study.
Of a total of 400 adolescents, the authors took 50 adolescents from community-based survey and rest of the adolescents from schools. It is not clear as to what was the rationale behind choosing adolescents in this proportion from these two sites. Choosing 50 adolescents from the community and the rest of the 350 students from school for the study doesn't seem justifiable.
Further, the authors have stated in the material and methods that they conducted a pilot study on 10% of the sample size, that is, 40 subjects. However, they have not stated that from where they have selected these 40 subjects; whether these 40 subjects were selected from the schools or community or both of them in a certain proportion.
Regarding the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) component, the authors have given their findings cumulatively under the heading "results." The findings in the study could have been made clearer by giving the survey tool in the present article and the mentioning the correct number of observations for each original variable for both knowledge and attitude as was the aim of the study. This would have given the readers the approximate estimate of the working knowledge and attitude among teenagers regarding tobacco use in Ludhiana, Punjab, India.
Finally, it is not clear as to why the authors left the practice component untouched as practice component forms an integral part of the KAP study. Excluding practice component from the present study seems inappropriate as practices or behaviours are the observable actions of an individual in response to a stimulus and attitude is an intermediate variable between the situation and the response to this situation, it helps explain that among the possible practices for a subject submitted to a stimulus, that subject adopts one practice and not another. [2]
Hence, mentioning practices regarding tobacco use among teenagers is necessary to derive a better idea regarding this social problem.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Saji AE, Jain R, Pabla A. Tobacco use among teenagers in Ludhiana, Punjab, India: A survey of initiation, prevalence, knowledge, and attitude. CHRISMED J Health Res 2014;1:176-9.   |
| 2. | |
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