NEW DELHI: Indian women facing domestic violence seem to be turning
to an equally harmful stress reliever -- a quick puff.
A study conducted by a team from Harvard School of Public Health has found
that women in India who have faced or are facing violence at the hands of
their spouses or in-laws have a 20 to 40% increased chance of tobacco use,
irrespective of socio-economic factors like income and education level.
In fact, according to the team's findings, smoking risk increased for any
adult living in households where domestic violence was prevalent, regardless
of whether the person was a victim, a perpetrator or neither.
According to Dr S V Subramanian, associate professor in the department of
society, human development and health at HSPH and a member of the research
team, the study highlights yet another negative outcome of the social
problem of domestic violence.
"Domestic violence is now definitely one of the risk factors for smoking in
India. Over 40% of Indian women report being slapped, kicked, hit or beaten
during their marriages. This research is important in terms of both tobacco
control and the campaign against domestic violence," Subramanian, who is of
Indian origin, said.
He added that the findings reinforce the notion that addressing the
psychological and social context is key to the fight against tobacco. The
study appears in the December issue of the journal, Tobacco Control.
To see if there was a link between domestic violence and tobacco use in
India, the researchers, led by lead author Leland Ackerson, used data from
India's National Family Health Survey-I, a cross-sectional survey conducted
during 1998-1999. The samples included 89,092 women and 2,78,977 family
members aged 15 and older.
The researchers found that for married women, 19% reported incidents of
abuse. Over 85% of the abused women said that faced violence from their
husbands. Over 40% of such women were found to be at high risk of smoking.
Researchers, therefore, concluded that smoking may act as a stress reliever
in households that experience domestic violence.
"This is the first study to show a link between domestic violence and
tobacco use in a developing country. This link had previously been shown
only in wealthy nations; we now found the same relationship in a place where
poverty is endemic," Ackerson said.
Dr K Srinath Reddy, former HOD of cardiology at AIIMS, who is a strong
activist against smoking, told TOI, "The association between domestic
violence and smoking seems to be genuine.
Indians who smoke or chew tobacco say tobacco helps relieve them of stress.
But it actually does just the opposite. Nicotine raises blood pressure and
pulse rate.
Numerous studies have shown that tobacco consumption is rampant in lower
levels of society with low income and
education. Violence is also higher in this section. However, in situations
where families are already stressed because of food shortage, tobacco can
aggravate the discord."
Smoking and chewing tobacco contribute to over 8,00,000 deaths in India
every year. Over 29% of men and 3% of women smoke in India. The rate of
tobacco chewing is around 29% for men and 12% for women.
Although rates of tobacco use are low among women, early indications are
that these levels are on the rise. While the harmful effects of tobacco use
are well documented, there has been little research at the stress factors
associated with tobacco use among Indians.
The US had also earlier found in smaller studies an association between
domestic violence and smoking, the study "Exposure to Domestic Violence
Associated With Adult Smoking In India: A Population-Based Study", said.
