Risk of oral cancer associated with gutka and other tobacco products: a hospital-based case-control study.

BACKGROUND

Although tobacco deaths rarely make headlines, tobacco kills one person every six seconds. Tobacco kills a third to half of all people who use it, on average 15 years prematurely.

AIM OF THE STUDY

To study the risk of oral cancer associated with gutka consumption and other tobacco products.

OBJECTIVE

(1) To find the association between gutka consumption and oral cancer. (2) To study the association between oral cancer and other tobacco products.

METHODOLOGY

A case-control study of 134 cases and 268 controls, over a period of 5 months, from March 2013 to July 2013, was carried out at the Kasturba medical hospital in Manipal, India. The participants were personally interviewed by the investigator using a structured questionnaire on consumption of tobacco, poly-ingredient dip products, alcohol, dietary practices, oral hygiene practices and demographic status.

RESULTS

Univariate logistic regression followed by multivariate logistic regression was done for identifying the risk factors and adjusted for the confounding variables. Analysis showed that gutka (<0.001, OR = 5.1 95% CI = 2.0-10.3), chewing tobacco (P < 0.001, OR = 6.0 95% CI = 2.3-15.7), supari (P < 0.001, OR = 11.4 95% CI = 3.4,38.2), betel quid (P < 0.001, OR = 6.4 95% CI = 2.6-15.5), bidi (P < 0.05, OR = 2.3 95% CI = 1.1-4.8) and alcohol (P < 0.001, OR = 3.7 95%CI = 1.8-7.5) had strong association with oral cancer upon adjustment.

CONCLUSION

The study provided strong evidence that gutka, supari, chewing tobacco, betel quid, bidi and alcohol are independent risk factors for oral cancer.