Role of Regulatory Approach in the Prevention of Smoking among Professional Students in India.

BACKGROUND This study was done to know the effect of antismoking legislation among different professional students as, in this age group individuals tend to involve in such adverse habits. MATERIALS & METHODS In this cross-sectional study, three different professional students (Arts, Engineering and Dental) were considered. A pretested self administered structured questionnaire was used to know the attitude of students towards anti smoking legislation like smoking habits, awareness of antismoking legislation etc. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED Data was analysed using ANOVA and students't test. p<0.05 was considered as the level of significance. RESULTS The total study subjects were 990 including 396 -smokers and 594 - non smokers. 84.7% knew about antismoking legislation and around 70.2% answered that it was good to ban smoking in public places. Non smokers gave significantly more positive response towards law against smoking. CONCLUSION Overall results were supporting for the antismoking legislation. But there is a lack of enforcing mechanism in support of legislation, so a total ban on smoking may give us better and healthy results. How to cite the article: Vadvadgi VH, Sanjay V, Gupte A, Kamatagi L, Kathariya MD, Gugawad SC. Role of Regulatory Approach in the Prevention of Smoking among Professional Students in India. J Int Oral Health 2014;6(1):95-9.