EFFECT OF TOBACCO CHEWING ON METABOLIC RISK FACTORS IN NORTH INDIAN ADULT MALES

Tobacco consumption remains one of the leading preventable causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Tobacco use is a major public health concern despite widespread public health efforts and strict regulations. Within the framework of the NCEP ATP-III criteria, the goal of the study was to investigate the effects of tobacco consumption on metabolic risk factors in young adult males. This case-control study comprised of 50 male participants aged 18 to 30 years; 25 male tobacco chewers were assigned to the study group, and 25 males who did not chew tobacco (non-tobacco chewers) were assigned to the control group. Anthropometric and metabolic risk factors that were compared between the study and control groups included waist circumference (WC), blood glucose, serum level of triglycerides (TG) and total cholesterol (TC), Insulin resistance (IR) and the homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) index, which is a measure of IR. The results of the study demonstrated that compared to non-tobacco chewers, tobacco chewers had significantly higher glucose (p=0.026), TC (p=0.0013), insulin (p=0.015), and IR (p=0.027). However, there were no discernible variations in HDL, VLDL, and TG levels, or WC. Nine male tobacco chewers and eight male non-tobacco chewers from the respective groups exhibited metabolic risk based on the NCEP ATP-III criterion of three out of five risk factors. Thus, we draw the conclusion that while tobacco chewers' lipid profiles stayed similar, their TC, hyperglycaemia, hyperinsulinemia, and HOMA Index increased, making them more susceptible to the onset of metabolic syndrome.