| Summary: | Background and challenges to implementation
Fisher
folk are said to use tobacco products to avoid sea sickness and to stay awake
during night, while working at sea. The
people in this community have only minimal education, low income and are
unaware of harmful effects of tobacco. The present dental curriculum does not
emphasise on training undergraduates on anti-tobacco counselling. Dentists are
in a strategic position to diagnose oral cancerous and precancerous lesions and
facilitate tobacco cessation. As tobacco addiction is based on physical,
psychological and behavioural factors, it could be managed through
multifactorial approach by inter professional collaboration. The aim of study was to
assess the effectiveness of inter professional initiative using service
training to enable a fisher folk community to quit tobacco habits.
Intervention or response
A
training module was formulated by an inter professional team consisting of
psychiatrist, public health dentist, tobacco interventionist and primary health
care workers. Thirty dental interns participated in training programme on
lifestyle of fisher folk, tobacco epidemic, harmful effects of tobacco use and
tobacco cessation. The interns were also trained for role play in local
language, conveying the same message, to empower them to conduct awareness
programmes in the community. A house to house survey was conducted by primary
health workers in 208 houses of the community to assess knowledge and attitude
of fisher folk towards tobacco use before and after tobacco Intervention
Programme
Results and lessons learnt
There
was highly significant increase in knowledge and skills of dental interns after
Tobacco Intervention Training programme and 52% increase in the number of smoke
free homes in the community.
Conclusions and key recommendations
The
inter professional initiative empowered interns to incorporate tobacco
cessation in routine dental practice and effectively enabled fisher folk community in adopting smoke free
home policy. This initiative can be incorporated into the dental curriculum for raising future generation of dentists trained in tobacco cessation.
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