Awareness about cigarette- and tobacco-related legislation among college students of Belagavi City: An interventional study

Background: In 2003, the COTPA act was enacted to control and prohibit tobacco use all over India. It has focused on advertisement, prohibition of sale of tobacco products to below 18 years individual, etc., Objective: The objective was to determine the awareness of cigarette and tobacco legislation among college students of Belagavi city. Materials and Methods: A pre-post study was conducted, comprising 101 urban participants and 96 rural participants of average age 17.35 +/- 0.657 years in colleges in and around Belagavi taluka. The students were selected randomly. The awareness on COTPA was assessed using a pretested structured questionnaire before and after an educational intervention. Paired t-test was calculated to identify the difference in the pre- and post-test awareness scores. Results: The mean age of the participants was 17.35 +/- 0.657 years. The pretest and posttest awareness scores among the urban participants was 8.22 +/- 2.982 and 11.80 +/- 1.995, respectively. Similarly, the pretest and posttest awareness scores among the rural participants was 10.28 +/- 1.845 and 12.67 +/- 0.496, respectively. The result showed a significant difference in pre- and post-test scores, indicating increase in awareness of both urban and rural participants after an effective interventional program. Conclusion: The study concludes that the health education had a good impact on awareness on COTPA among all participants.