29 Original Article INTRODUCTION Adolescence is transition period in the life cycle of hu- man from childhood to adulthood [1]. UNICEF and WHO defined Adolescence as the age between 10 and 19 years [2,3]. Tobacco consumption leads among all preventable caus- es of deaths in countries of south-east Asia Region (SEAR) [2]. SEAR caters 26% (more than one-fourth) population of World. Socio-cultural practice of tobacco use is too high that out of five females two of them and nearly half male population routinely uses either one (smoke or smokeless) or both form of tobacco. Young people in the South-East Asia Region had the highest prevalence of use of smokeless tobacco (7.3%) with distribution among boys (9.5%) and girls (4.8%). These users accounted for nearly 60% of all smokeless tobacco users aged 13–15 years in the world. Study re- ports that SEAR had 250 million smokers and nearly same number of smokeless form of tobacco users [3]. Tobacco consumption in South East Asia region, attrib- Correspondence: Dr. Vishnoi Ravindra Kumar, Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, DMIMS Sawangi, Wardha, India. E-mail: drravindravishnoi@gmail.com ute 1.3 million (10%) of all deaths which accounts 14% among men and 5% in women [4]. Globally India has third position in tobacco produc- tion while tobacco consumers are second largest in numbers. Mortality in India due to Tobacco use is 1.3 million [5]. Out of which 1.0 million due to smoking and remaining from smokeless form of tobacco use [5]. Tobacco control in India-2004 reported all pro- portionate deaths attributed to tobacco use is ex- pected to rise from 1.4% in 1990 to 13.3% in 2020. Which will result in enormous economic, emotional and societal costs in a population of more than a bil- lion people [6]. Global report of WHO (2012) states that 7% of all deaths for ages 30 years and above in India are attributable due to use of tobacco [7]. Among the youth, Adolescents belonging to 10-19 years age group were highly vulnerable due to high academic stress, peer group encouragement, popularity-gain and easy availability. Substance use if initiated in early age commonly found associated with poor prognosis, irre- sponsible behaviour and lifelong deceit pattern [8]. Over the course of adolescence, individuals establish their value systems and secure a social status associated with being an adult. Most people experience these pro- cesses and changes without much trouble; however, ABSTRACT Background- Globally adolescent population is around 1200 million and out of six person, every one person is in ado- lescence (aged10 to 19 years) period. Yet most of them are healthy, but premature death, illness and injury among them can hinder ability to grow and develop to their full potential. It is estimated that 1.2 million adolescents died in 2015 and mostly from preventable or treatable causes. Tobacco consumption is world ’s leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. National Family Health Survey conducted in year 2016-17 reported tobacco consumption prevalence 38.9% in urban area and 48% in rural area of India. Method-It was a community based cross-sectional study conducted in eight villages of Wardha district adopted under Community Health Care program run by depart- ment of community medicine. Data was collected by interview from 485 adolescent in the age group of 10 -19 years by domiciliary visits using pre-designed pre-tested questionnaire. Results: Prevalence of tobacco use (all forms), smoke- less tobacco use and smoking in rural adolescents were 20.82%, 20.41%, and 2.68%, respectively. Prevalence of to- bacco use in boys (30.29%) was more than girls (4.49%). Higher Prevalence was found in late adolescent period. Bidi was commonly used form of smoke tobacco while Kharra was the preferred smokeless tobacco. Almost all smokers were male but few exceptions were there. Conclusion: The prevalence of tobacco use among rural adolescents was very high (20.82%) as compared to national prevalence of 14.6% according to the global youth tobacco survey India 2009. There is a need of early intervention for tobacco cessation as overall mean age of 1st experienced to tobacco consumption was 12.02 years and in male and female users it was 12.25 years and 10.88 years respectively. 42.10 % adolescents 1st time experienced any type of tobacco products when they were in the 12 -14 years age and only 0.66% adolescents experienced at the age of 17 -19 years. Maximum male (42.19%) and female (41.67%) ever user experi- enced their 1st tobacco consumption when they were 12-14 years old. Keywords: Adolescent; Prevalence; Smokeless Tobacco; Smoking Tobacco product; Tobacco use; Rural Area. DOI: 10.31878/ijcbr.2018.51.09 eISSN: 2395-0471 pISSN: 2521-0394 PREVALENCE OF TOBACCO CONSUMPTION AMONG ADOLESCENTS FROM RURAL AREA OF WARDHA DISTRICT Vishnoi Ravindra Kumar 1 , Wagh Vasant 2 , Gaidhane Abhay 3 , Muntode Pramita 4 , Kshatrapal Prajapat 5 1,2,3,4 Department of Community Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, DMIMSU, Sawangi, Wardha. 5 Department of Community Medicine, Govt Medical College, Shivpuri, Madhya Pradesh, India. © Authors; 2019. International Journal of Clinical and Biomedical Research, Sumathi Publications. This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)