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Observed Risk Factors and the Prevalence of Potential Oral Malignant Lesions among a North Indian Population

INTRODUCTION: The menace of oral cancer has become a public health concern and its prevalence is increasing with every passing day, making it the sixth most common cancer across the globe. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence and risk factors for potential oral malignant disorders in a middle aged north Indian population.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adopting a Cross-sectional study design, this study examined a total of 944 participants in the Delhi-NCR region and males formed a majority of the population (569, 60.3%). Data was collected using a pre-tested and pre-validated questionnaire. Descriptive statistics was applied and the chi-squared test (for qualitative data) and independent samples t-test(for quantitative data) was applied to find out statistical differences (Using SPSS 21.0), if any.RESULTS: It was reported that 201 (21.29%) of the study population suffered from oral malignant lesions, and the most prevalent lesion was OSMF [115, 12.18%] followed by leukoplakia [49, 5.19%]. The prevalence of oral malignant lesions among males was found to be higher(18.97%) as compared to females. A significant difference was found between the oral lesions and tobacco ever and never chewers (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The results indicate a need to focus tobacco cessation programmes in the population of Delhi-NCR and reinforce it from time to time to reduce the burden of such Oral Malignant Disorders.