Assessment of knowledge regarding hazards of tobacco use among police personnel in Belagavi city: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: Tobacco is a serious threat to health and ranks second as a cause of death globally, and it also ranks fourth in its input to years of life lost. The worldwide tobacco related mortality rate reached up to 4 million per year in 1998 and is expected to become 10 million per year in 2030. This is more than the total deaths from tuberculosis, malaria, maternal, and major childhood conditions combined. Objective: The aim is to assess the level of knowledge regarding hazards of tobacco use among police personnel in Belagavi city. Methodology: This study design was a cross-sectional study conducted in Belagavi city. Data collected from Civil Police Department of all 22 police stations, involving 120 police officers from different ranks from different police stations, the pilot study was done in one police station with 10% of total sample size. The duration of the study was August 2015 to February 2017. The study data were collected through pretested structured questionnaire from February 2016 to January 2017. Before collecting the data, the written informed consent was obtained from the police personnel. Based on the objective, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The 16.7% of police personnel had the average knowledge and 80.8% were had good knowledge about hazards of tobacco use. Conclusion: The majority police personnel had average and good knowledge about hazards of tobacco use.