Relationship between Chewing Tobacco and Haemoglobin Level in Lactating Mother in Karo District, Indonesia

WHO states that deaths from tobacco around the world have been very worrying, namely 100 million during the 20th and 1 billion centuries during the 21st century if there were no efforts to prevent tobacco intake. The difficulty of reducing smoking habits is due to the content in tobacco that causes pleasure and addiction in tobacco users, namely nicotine, nicotirin, and myosmin. In addition to being consumed in the form of cigarettes, tobacco is also consumed by chewing on some people as a habit that has been going on for a long time such as in Karo Regency. This study was a descriptive study with a “cross sectional study” design to know relationship between chewing tobacco and haemoglobin level in lactating mother. The population was all mothers who breastfed babies aged 0-24 months with a purposively determined sample of 44 people. The chi square test used to analyse the relationship of food consumption and chewing tobacco with blood haemoglobin levels. The research conclude that there is a significant relationship between consumption of chewing tobacco and blood haemoglobin levels in lactating mothers and there is no correlation between consumption of energy, protein and iron with blood haemoglobin levels in lactating mothers. Socialization of chewing tobacco habits in lactating mother should be done by health workers at Karo District Health Office.