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Regional and Demographic Trends (India)
- Tobacco use declined from 44.5% (2016) to 32.6% (2021) in men, though still high in the Northeast (Rajpal et al., 2025).
- Alcohol consumption declined nationally from 29.2% (2016) to 17.5% (2021) among men (Rajpal et al., 2025).
- Women who used tobacco and alcohol had significantly higher odds of having NCDs compared to non-users. PMC
- Demographic patterning shows that the age at initiation of alcohol and tobacco consumption is decreasing, with more and more younger groups being exposed to these risk factors(Rajpal et al., 2025)
National Burden
Tobacco use is estimated to cause roughly 13.5 lakh (1.35 million) deaths annually in India from diseases including heart disease, cancer, and respiratory conditions. healthyindiaalliance.org