Role of Tobacco Consumption Habits in the Causation of Precancerous Lesions: A Cross Sectional Study

Oral carcinoma is quite common and increasing trend in India and worldwide. Smoking and smokeless tobacco both are increasing worldwide. The common oral precancerous lesions are oral leukoplakia, erythroplakia, nicotina palati and oral sub mucous fibrosis (OSMF). Screening is best tool to find out such lesions. The current study is conducted to know the prevalence of tobacco consumption and also to examine oral cavity of tobacco consumer to detect precancerous lesions among the staff. Method: The present study was cross sectional study carried out tertiary care hospital staff. The study was conducted over a period of 6 month from May 2017 to October 2017. Ethical clearance for study was obtained from Institutional Ethical Committee. The staff members of class 3 and class 4 of hospital were taken as a study participants involving both of sex and who provided written informed consent. Sample of 120 staff members were enrolled for the study from provided sampling frame with the use of random sampling method. Study participants with previous history of hospital admission for any systemic illness, immunodeficiency or immunosuppressive patients, and participants who already diagnosed to have malignant cancer lesions in any part of body were excluded. Result: Of 120 study participants, 40% were belongs to 31 – 40 years of age group and majority were male (80%) and belonged to Hindu (90.83%) religion. The prevalence of tobacco consumption in any of form is 85%; of them 43.33% used smokeless tobacco and 10.83% used to with smoking and 30.83% had both forms of tobacco. Oral Sub Mucosal Fibrosis (OSMF) was the most common (70.58%) precancerous lesion found in the present study, followed by leukoplakia (16.67%). Conclusion: Current study revealed the high prevalence. There is urgent need to plan de-addiction at various level. Also those having the precancerous lesion need to warn and treat accordingly.