Less than half of tobacco users in multiple states across India receive advice from doctors to quit the habit, according to a study that health experts say reveals the scale at which health-care providers disregard tobacco-control guidelines. Himachal Pradesh was the only state where over 65 per cent of tobacco users received quit advice. Health studies in the past have suggested that quit advice from doctors, among other anti-tobacco measures, is an influential intervention in efforts to curb consumption as their recommendations are considered important and trustworthy. They found that states with higher proportions of tobacco users who received quit advice also had higher proportions of consumers who actually tried to quit. In Assam, Bengal and Jharkhand, for example, where relatively fewer received the quit advice, only 25 per cent tobacco users had attempted giving up the habit.

Source: The Telegraph March 21, 2019 20:37 UTC