Knowledge of School-Going Adolescents About the Oral Effects of Tobacco Usage in Ibadan,Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Background

The individual knowledge of the effects of tobacco usage on health plays an important role in its uptake. Tobacco consumption usually starts during adolescence, and lack of knowledge about the oral problems of tobacco usage probably plays a role in it.

Aim

To determine the knowledge of adolescents about the effect of tobacco usage on oral health.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,465 adolescents aged 12 to 20 years who attended senior secondary schools in a major city in Nigeria. Data were obtained through a semistructured questionnaire. Data obtained were analyzed with SPSS.

Results

The mean age of respondents was 15.2 (±1.4) years. Only 40 (2.7%) of them used tobacco at the time of study and 992 (67.7%) said that tobacco usage has effect(s) on oral health. The main effects mentioned were mouth odor: 338 (34.1%); teeth discoloration: 297 (29.9%); tooth decay: 138 (13.9%); damage to teeth: 72 (7.3%); lip discoloration: 39 (3.9%); and oral cancer: 11 (1.1%). It was found that female respondents (72.1%, odds ratio = 1.4, confidence interval = 1.1–1.7, p = .005); those aged 12 to 15 years (73.6%, odds ratio = 2.0, confidence interval = 1.6–2.5, p < .001); and children of skilled workers (73.4%, odds ratio = 1.9, confidence interval = 1.2–3.0, p = .008) were more likely to mention that tobacco has adverse effect(s) on oral health.

Conclusion

Although two thirds of the students knew that tobacco usage has effects on oral health, there were gross inadequacies in the knowledge and misconceptions about those effects.

Keywords

adolescents oral health school smoking tobacco

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

World Health Organization. WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco smoking 2015. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2015.

Chadda

Sengupta

Tobacco use by Indian adolescents. Tob Induc Dis 2002; 1: 111

Huxley

Yatsuya

Lutsey

, et al. Impact of age at smoking initiation, dosage, and time since quitting on cardiovascular disease in African Americans and Whites: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study. Am J Epidemiol 2012; 175: 816–826.

Odukoya

Odeyemi

Oyeyemi

Upadhyay

RP.

Determinants of smoking initiation and susceptibility to future smoking among school-going adolescents in Lagos State, Nigeria. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev 2013; 14: 1747–1753.

Thompson

Tebes

McKee

SA.

Gender differences in age of smoking initiation and its association with health. Addict Res Theory 2015; 23: 413–420.

Kasza

Ambrose

Conway

, et al. Tobacco-product use by adults and youths in the United States in 2013 and 2014. N Engl J Med 2017; 376: 342–353.

Kumar

Talwar

Roy

, et al. Psychosocial determinants of tobacco use among school going adolescents in Delhi, India. J Addict 2014; 2014: 170941

Al-Qurashi

Al-Farea

Al-Qurai

, et al. Comparison of oral hygiene practices and oral health problems among smoker and non-smoker male adolescents in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Saudi J Dent Res 2016; 7: 106–111.

Bandason

Rusakaniko

Prevalence and associated factors of smoking among secondary school students in Harare Zimbabwe. Tob Induc Dis 2010; 8: 12

10.

Veeranki

Mamudu

John

, et al. Prevalence and correlates of tobacco use among school-going adolescents in Madagascar. J Epidemiol Glob Health 2015; 5: 239–247.

11.

Peltzer

Prevalence and correlates of substance use among school children in six African countries. Int J Psychol 2009; 44: 378–386.

12.

Fawibe

Shittu

Prevalence and characteristics of cigarette smokers among undergraduates of the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Niger J Clin Pract 2011; 14: 201–205.

13.

Okagua

Opara

Alex-Hart

BA.

Prevalence and determinants of cigarette smoking among adolescents in secondary schools in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria. Int J Adolesc Med Health 2016; 28: 19–24.

14.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing tobacco use among young people: a report of the Surgeon General (Executive Summary). MMWR 1994;43(No. RR-4): [inclusive page numbers].

15.

Agaku

Ayo-Yusuf

Vardavas

, et al. Predictors and patterns of cigarette and smokeless tobacco use among adolescents in 32 countries, 2007–2011. J Adolesc Health 2014; 54: 47–53.

16.

Aryal

Petzold

Krettek

Perceived risks and benefits of cigarette smoking among Nepalese adolescents: a population-based cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health 2013; 13: 187

17.

Song

Morrell

Cornell

, et al. Perceptions of smoking-related risks and benefits as predictors of adolescent smoking initiation. Am J Public Health 2009; 99: 487–492.

18.

Ashraf Nazir

Almas

Awareness about the effects of tobacco consumption on oral health and the possibility of smoking behavior among male Saudi school children. Eur J Dent 2017; 11: 29–35.

19.

Alzyoud

Kheirallah

Weglicki

, et al. Tobacco smoking status and perception of health among a sample of Jordanian students. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2014; 11: 7022–7035.

20.

Esan

Olusile

Akeredolu

Esan

AO.

Socio-demographic factors and edentulism: the Nigerian experience. BMC Oral Health 2004; 4: 3

21.

Lawal

Arowojolu

Sociodemographic status of patients seeking routine scaling and polishing in a resource challenged environment. West Afr J Med 2015; 34: 193–196.

22.

Carneiro

Kabulwa

Makyao

, et al. Oral health knowledge and practices of secondary school students, Tanga, Tanzania. Int J Dent 2011; 2011: 806258

23.

Jayakrishnan

Geetha

Binukumar

, et al. Self-reported tobacco use, knowledge on tobacco legislation and tobacco hazards among adolescents in rural Kerala State. Indian J Dent Res 2011; 22: 195

24.

Reddy

Bennadi

Gaduputi

, et al. Oral health related knowledge, attitude, and practice among the pre-university students of Mysore city. J Int Soc Prev Community Dent 2014; 4: 154

25.

Lawal

Taiwo

JO.

Making a case for formal school-based oral health promotion: Oral health knowledge, attitude and practices of pupils in Ibadan, Nigeria. Int Q Community Health Educ 2018; 38: 99–105.

26.

Sofola

Implications of low oral health awareness in Nigeria. Nigerian Med J 2010; 51: 131.

27.

Mejia

Elani

Harper

, et al. Socioeconomic status, oral health and dental disease in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. BMC Oral Health 2018; 18: 176.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.10 MB