Gendered Pattern and Predictors of Tobacco Use in India: Evidence from the Second Round of Global Adult Tobacco Survey

Background: India has completed the second round of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) to monitor adult tobacco use and progress in tobacco control efforts. This study assesses the gendered pattern of tobacco use and its predictors in the second rounds of GATS.

Material And Methods: Publicly available GATS-2 (2016-2017) data was analyzed which contains self-reported tobacco use information of ≥15 years Indians ( = 74,037). The independent predictors of "smoking only," "smokeless only," and "dual use" among current male and female tobacco users were assessed using the multinomial regression model.

Results: The burden of "smoking only," "smokeless only," and "dual-use" of tobacco were 8.9% (8.74-9.15), 16.69% (16.42-16.96), and 3.89% (3.75-4.03), respectively, in the second round with wide regional variation as well as male dominance in use. Region, age, education, caste, and religion were significantly and consistently associated with different types of tobacco use in both genders. Other contextual predictors of tobacco use were residence, marital status, occupation, awareness, and wealth index (WI).

Conclusions: Tobacco use predictors and their gendered patterns are contextual. Monitoring the predictors for tobacco use, which may change over time, should be given priority in the national tobacco control program.