Prevalence and Characteristics of Areca Nut Chewing Habit among School Going Children in Karachi
Keywords:
Areca nut chewing habit, school going children, characteristics of areca nut chewing habitAbstract
Introduction:
Areca nut is the fruit of areca catechu palm tree. It is forth most common psychoactive substanceused worldwide. Mostly the areca nut chewing habit is prevalent in South Asian countries. Areca nut is usedin betel quid or as processed areca nut products. Areca nut is classified as class I carcinogen by IARC. Thehigher incidence of oral cancer in Pakistan is mostly attributed to the use of areca nut products. In Pakistanstudies on prevalence of areca nut chewing habit among children were conducted in highly selected and highrisk population.
Objectives:
To determine the prevalence of areca nut chewing habit and different characteristics of regularand occasional areca nut chewers among school going children in Karachi.
Methodology:
A cross sectional study was conducted in government and private schools of nine towns selectedfrom total eighteen towns of Karachi from January 2010 to June 2012. A stratified cluster random samplingwas used to select study sample, representative of all school going children in Karachi.
Results:
A total of 3,107, aged 7-16 years (50.7% female and 49.3% male students) were interviewed andexamined. Majority of sample 60.2% were drawn from private schools and 39.8% from government schools.Result showed that 40.8% children chewed areca nut regularly, 39% occasionally and 20.2% rarely.
Conclusion:
The prevalence of areca nut chewing habit among school going children in Karachi was foundhigh (40.8%). The regular areca nut chewing habit was found to be related with addiction potential of arecanut, use of tobacco containing areca nut products and low socioeconomic status of students.
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Copyright (c) 2021 Marium Sarfaraz, Anwar Ali, Talat Mirza
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