Influence of Family Environment and Tobacco Addiction: A Short Report from a Post-Graduate Teaching Hospital, India.

The initiation of tobacco addiction is complex, and several factors contribute to the onset of this behavior. It is presumed that the influence of family environment may pose a key factor in tobacco addiction. Tobacco-use has been highly observed in the Jamnagar district of Saurashtra region of Gujarat, India. No earlier study has focused on determining the pervasiveness of tobacco-use in families of tobacco users and non-users in this geographical area. Thus, this study aimed to assess the practice and pattern of tobacco-use (smoking and/or tobacco-chewing) in the families of tobacco-user patients. We studied the families of 65 tobacco-user patients (Group 1) who visited an outpatient clinic of an Ayurvedic post-graduate hospital with complaints of cough were studied and compared with age and gender-matched non-tobacco users (Group 2). The prevalence of tobacco use among the parents, siblings, and children of both groups was analyzed and compared. The findings revealed that tobacco use among parents, siblings, and children in Group 1 was higher than Group 2 ( < 0.001). This meant that the problems of tobacco addiction are not always related to the individual, and therefore, tobacco-prevention strategies should focus on the entire family. These findings offer further insight into the promotion of smoking prevention interventions. Nevertheless, further research is warranted.