Practice and awareness of migrant pregnant women living in urban slums towards tobacco consumption

Background: Annually, 1.35 million tobacco attributable mortalities occur in India. The problem is alarming and exacerbated in the case of migrants living in low socioeconomic conditions. Past researchers indicated migrant pregnant women are most vulnerable in this regard. Aim: The objective of the study is to find out the tobacco related practices and awareness of migrant pregnant females residing in the urban slums area of Aligarh city. Method: A cross-sectional study with a sample size of 314 was conducted. Three hypotheses were proposed based on the available evidences. Data collection was done by a pre-tested interview schedule. Awareness level was captured by scoring the responses of participants. For statistical analysis IBM-SPSS (version 22.0) was utilized. Linear regression, unpaired t-test and ANOVA methods were employed for analysis and hypothesis testing. Results: About one-third of the respondents consumed tobacco product in the past, out of which approximately 31% of the respondent consumed tobacco during pregnancy. The awareness score of respondents were analyzed and found to exhibit a positive linear association (R-2=0.802) with mass media exposure. Analysis unveiled a statistically significant variation in awareness score (regarding health impact of tobacco use) of migrant women married to tobacco consuming males (14.7 +/- 2.6) and non-consuming males (23.2 +/- 3.1). Conclusion: The government health agencies should reboot mass media campaigns against tobacco use; priority to migrants in the reproductive age group should be given. A social-network analysis needs to be done, to examine the role of husbands in imparting tobacco related awareness to wives.