Abstract

Background: Smoking is a globally leading risk factor for different types of diseases. Smoking by women is culturally unacceptable in India; still, women smoke tobacco at various times of their life.
Objective: To explore the attitude and determine the factors about smoking among older female subjects in rural areas of northern state of India.
Materials and Methods: Quantitative nonexperimental approach with exploratory descriptive design was used to attain error-free outcomes. Eighty older female subjects aged older than 55 years and living in rural areas were selected by snowball sampling technique from selected rural areas. Semistructured interview was conducted to explore the attitude and determine the factors about smoking among older female subjects in rural areas of northern state of India. A self- developed practice checklist was used during the data collection. Ethical committee permission was obtained from the concern authority, and informed consent was taken from the study participants. Result: In this study, we found that 20% disagreed for quitting smoking as they felt that is good for health, 80% that it is a self-decision, 19.25% disagreed that family members are also affected by smoking, 22.50% disagreed that smoking causes any serious respiratory problems, 80% strongly agreed that smoking helps to reduce stress and it is an acceptable manner of relaxation, and 46.25% were not aware about the side effects of smoking. Majority of older female subjects started smoking at the age of 20 years along with friends and owing to other associated factors [i.e., habit, enjoyment, gastrointestinal (GI) problems, etc.]. GI and respiratory problems were found as common health problems among these female subjects. Conclusion: Awareness regarding adverse effects is quite less. So, there is a need of proper intervention to educate them to decrease further health complications and frequency in coming generation.