BACKGROUND AND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES: 267 million adults use tobacco in India, majority of whom belong to the working population. Workplace setting provides strategic opportunity to reduce the overall prevalence of tobacco and impact the health of the workforce. Designing an effective tobacco cessation programme in India is a challenge because of diverse tobacco products, varied cessation needs of management and workers and limited evidence for addressing smokeless tobacco users.
INTERVENTION OR RESPONSE: LifeFirst implemented the workplace cessation programme in 18 units of a cement manufacturing industry from 2018-2023 across 11 states of India in a phased manner. The multi-faceted programme included leadership engagement and sensitization to secure their buy-in and collaborative action plan development with management teams. The core components of the intervention included awareness session for all the employees, distribution of self-help materials and offering tobacco cessation counselling services for six months. The individual counselling sessions were conducted in-person and over telephone. These components were tailored to address the varied needs of each unit and employees.
RESULTS AND IMPACT: Out of 12496 employees, 8698 (70%) (both management and workers) were sensitized about harmful effects of tobacco. Among them 3010 (35%) registered for counselling services. All of them were males. Average age of initiation was 24.4 years. 78% consumed smokeless tobacco, 14% smoked and 8% consumed both, with regional variations in the products. 56% registered employees had never made a quit attempt. The uptake of counselling was higher among the workers as compared to the management employees. At the end of the programme, 1661 (55%) self-reported not using tobacco, 20% reduced and 5% relapsed. 56% of smokeless tobacco users, 51% smokers and 42% dual users stopped their use.
CONCLUSIONS: Behavioural workplace tobacco cessations are feasible and help reduce the overall tobacco use. A top-down approach and tailored support strategies, are essential for effective implementation.