Burden of premalignant and malignant oral lesions in rural field practice area of tertiary care hospital: a cross-sectional study

Background: Head and neck cancers rank third in most common malignancies encountered in both genders globally. Known risk factors of oral cancer or precancer include tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, smokeless tobacco use. Several studies among rural, semi-urban and urban populations, have proven the higher likelihood of tobacco consumption in rural settlements. Methods: A hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in rural health training centre, Paithan under government medical college, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. The objectives of the study being to estimate burden of oral cancerous lesions and to determine other factors related to tobacco consumption. Results: A total of 166 individuals were included in the study. Sociodemographic details of all participants are shown in Table 1. Mean age of all participants was calculated as 47.4±17.19 years. Prevalence of oral premalignant lesions was estimated to be 37.3%, and of oral squamous cell carcinoma 3%. Conclusions: India being the second largest consumer of tobacco products in the world, the need to heighten our concern about tobacco usage being a leading cause of death and debilitating disease in our country.