Fewer Indians used tobacco in 2015-16 than a decade ago, but only China consumes and produces more tobacco, keeping cancer rates high, according to the latest national health data.
This figure is 26 percentage points higher than the national average.
Mizoram tops the list, with 80.4% men and 59.2% women, between 15 and 49 years of age, consuming tobacco. When ranked for men using tobacco, it is followed by Meghalaya (72.2%), Manipur (70.6%), Nagaland (69.4%), Tripura (67.8%) and Assam (63.9%).
At 37.7%, the female average for tobacco users in Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland was way above the national average of 6.8%.
Source: National Family Health Survey, 2015-16
Note: Figures refer to tobacco use in any form in the age group 15-49 years.
The north-eastern states also report a higher risk for cancer – 112 men and 60 women out of every 1,000 die of cancer here while the national average is 47 for men and 44 for women, according to the 2012 Million Death Study published in The Lancet.
The latest national average for tobacco consumption, according to NFHS is 44.5% men and 6.8% women – lower than 2005-06 figures. Tobacco use has fallen in India – by 12.5 percentage points for men and four percentage points for women – over a decade.
In 2011, the total cost of dealing with diseases related to tobacco use among the 35-69 age group in India amounted to Rs 1.05 lakh crore ($22.4 billion), according to this 2014 study by the ministry of health and family welfare.
This is 1.16% of the gross domestic product and 12% more than the combined state and central government expenditure on healthcare in 2011.
The survey also shows that 29.3% female and 30.6% male tobacco users in the 15-49 age group tried to wean themselves off tobacco in the 12 months preceding the survey.
In Mizoram, tobacco use has fallen by 1.6 percentage points and three percentage points for women and men, respectively, since 2005-06.
Source: National Family Health Survey, 2015-16
Note: Figures refer to those who tried to stop tobacco use in the 12 months preceding the survey (in the age group 15-49 years).
Punjab and Puducherry with 19.2% and 14.4%, respectively, recorded the lowest use of tobacco among men. Fewer than 1% women in the 15-49 age group use any kind of tobacco in Himachal Pradesh, Daman & Diu, Kerala, Chandigarh and Puducherry.
Both men and women (between 15 and 49 years of age) use more tobacco in India’s villages than its cities. Among urban women, 4.4% use it compared to the 8.1% women in villages. For men in villages, the figure is 48% and in cities, 38.9%.
Even on the question of trying to go off tobacco, more urban women users (33%) make an effort than women users in villages (28.2%). But the trend is reversed for men: 31.2% male tobacco users in villages and 29.6% in cities tried to wean themselves off tobacco.
Not a single state has more than 50% of male and female tobacco consumers (in the 15-49 age group) attempting to quit consumption of tobacco in any form in 12 months preceding the survey.
The number of those using smokeless tobacco (25.9%) is almost double that of those who smoke (14%), according to Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2009-10.
Tobacco caused 42% of all cancers in men and 18% of all cancers in women, according to the Million Death Study. In all, tobacco caused 120,000 cancers with twice as many oral cancers as lung cancer. This highlights the high prevalence of tobacco chewing in India.
Michelle Reyes, an expert with the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease, in a statement released on the eve of the International Tobacco Day, said:
(Rao is currently an intern with IndiaSpend. This article was first published on IndiaSpend.)
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