India, Oct. 2 -- A new study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) finds that chewing tobacco use contributed to an estimated 251,000 deaths globally in 2023, with health loss overwhelmingly concentrated in South Asia, including India.

The analysis, part of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023 (GBD 2023) and published in The Lancet Global Health, is the most comprehensive assessment to date of chewing tobacco-related health burden, covering 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2023.

It distinguishes the burden of chewing tobacco from that of other forms of smokeless tobacco that are often grouped together.

Despite decades of progress in tobacco control, the global prevalence of chewing tobacco use has rem...