Snuff Usage and Knowledge Regarding Its Effects Among Pakistani Male Students of Public Medical University, Peshawar

In Pakistan, snuff, locally known as Naswar, was introduced decades ago, and is usually processed into a loose moist form, and its use is widespread in the country. The evaluation of carcinogenic risks of smokeless tobacco by the International Agency on Research for Cancer (IARC) has confirmed that smokeless tobacco is carcinogenic to human and the main target organ being the oral cavity where the products are applied locally. So, this study is done about snuff usage and knowledge regarding its effects among Pakistani Male Students in Khyber Medical University, Peshawar. Descriptive cross sectional institutional based study with sample size of 400 was done from 5251 the study population (Pakistanis male students at the Khyber Medical University, Peshawar) during the academic year 2018-2020, in which random sampling technique was used. Data was collected using self-administrated questionnaire. Data were analyzed using statistical package for social science (SPSS) (IBM v. 25). The overall knowledge level was very high within non-snuff dippers i.e., 92%, which was very high according to Likert measure, whereas the knowledge level among snuff dippers was (76.4%) which was also high. The prevalence of snuff usage among Pakistani male students was 174 (43.5%) n = 400. The greatest predisposing factor was the friend’s effect (81.5%), whereas the least predisposing factor was the advertisement effect (23.8%). There was a significant relationship between knowledge level and snuff usage. In conclusion, snuff usage prevalence among students was high, the overall knowledge level was very high, effect of friends was the most common risk factor for snuff usage, so there is an urgent need for intervention by providing tobacco prevention program for raising awareness regarding to the health hazards of tobacco use and counselling to help and encourage users for cessation and to prevent tobacco initiation.