A study on awareness regarding cigarettes and other tobacco products act (COTPA Act) among hospital staff of medical college, Kanpur: A mixed method study

In 2003, the government of India formulated "the cigarettes and other tobacco products Act (prohibition of advertisement and regulation of trade and commerce, production, supply, and distribution) (COTPA)". The aim of the study is to evaluate hospital staff's knowledge of the COTPA Act and their enablers and hurdles using qualitative analysis. This study was conducted in GSVM Medical College, and this was a convergent parallel mixed-methods study, with a quantitative component (cross-sectional survey) complemented by a qualitative component (descriptive study). A pre-tested, semi-structured, face-validated questionnaire was incorporated into the Epicollect5 application for data collection. The qualitative study was conducted among 11 hospital staff. On quantitative analysis, hospital personnel's overall awareness of any tobacco control law was 59.4, with 56.6 being tobacco abusers and 69.5 being non-abusers. On qualitative analysis by in-depth interview framework analysis, decalogues were taken from the responses provided by the participants. After that, the decalogues were divided into three keynotes which were openers, hurdles, and recommendations. Study demonstrates that more than half of the employees are already aware of COTPA Act but still need more coordinated effort from all responsible authorities of medical institute to increase COTPA Act awareness.