Skip to main content
PMC home page
Tobacco Control logoLink to Tobacco Control
. 2001 Mar;10(1):e1. doi: 10.1136/tc.10.1.e1

Prevalence and correlates of smoking on the roof of the world

S M Shah, A Arif, G Delclos, A Khan, A Khan
PMCID: PMC1763996  PMID: 11226370

Abstract

OBJECTIVE—To determine the prevalence and correlates of cigarette smoking among adults in high mountain rural areas of northern Pakistan.
DESIGN—Cross sectional survey.
PARTICIPANTS—A sample of 4203 adults (aged 18 years and over) were selected by stratified random sampling from 16 villages.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE—Self reported smoking prevalence; age of smoking initiation; daily cigarette consumption and association between current smoking and sociodemographic variables, use of snuff, wine, body mass index, blood pressure, family history of stroke, and hypertension.
RESULTS—614/1406 men (43.7%) and 154/2797 (5.5%) women reported smoking cigarettes. The age standardised prevalence of smoking was 40.5% for men and 6.3% for women. Men were more likely (odds ratio (OR) 6.5, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.75 to 8.79) to be smokers. Smokers were more likely to use snuff (OR 1.39, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.73), drink wine (OR 3.47, 95% CI 2.81 to 4.29), and were more likely to work as farmers (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.05 to 2.29) or shopkeepers (OR 2.63, 95% CI 1.67 to 4.14). Individuals with college level education and with desirable body mass index were less likely to smoke (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.87; OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.57 to 0.96).
CONCLUSION—Cigarette smoking is a major public health problem in this high mountain community of Pakistan, particularly among the male population, the majority of whom begin to smoke quite early in life. A comprehensive tobacco control effort incorporated into the existing community based health infrastructure is needed.


Keywords: Pakistan; prevalence of smoking

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (127.5 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Alam S. E. Prevalence and pattern of smoking in Pakistan. J Pak Med Assoc. 1998 Mar;48(3):64–66. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Asghar M., Jan Z. A. Monitoring of harmful constituents of cigarettes and tobacco in Pakistan. J Pak Med Assoc. 1989 Mar;39(3):66–68. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Blot W. J., McLaughlin J. K., Winn D. M., Austin D. F., Greenberg R. S., Preston-Martin S., Bernstein L., Schoenberg J. B., Stemhagen A., Fraumeni J. F., Jr Smoking and drinking in relation to oral and pharyngeal cancer. Cancer Res. 1988 Jun 1;48(11):3282–3287. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Brennan J. A., Boyle J. O., Koch W. M., Goodman S. N., Hruban R. H., Eby Y. J., Couch M. J., Forastiere A. A., Sidransky D. Association between cigarette smoking and mutation of the p53 gene in squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. N Engl J Med. 1995 Mar 16;332(11):712–717. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199503163321104. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Flegal K. M., Troiano R. P., Pamuk E. R., Kuczmarski R. J., Campbell S. M. The influence of smoking cessation on the prevalence of overweight in the United States. N Engl J Med. 1995 Nov 2;333(18):1165–1170. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199511023331801. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Jayant K., Deo M. G. Oral cancer and cultural practices in relation to betel quid and tobacco chewing and smoking. Cancer Detect Prev. 1986;9(3-4):207–213. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Licorice, tobacco chewing, and hypertension. N Engl J Med. 1990 Mar 22;322(12):849–850. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199003223221213. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Marsh D. R., Kadir M. M., Husein K., Luby S. P., Siddiqui R., Khalid S. B. Adult mortality in slums of Karachi, Pakistan. J Pak Med Assoc. 2000 Sep;50(9):300–306. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Merchant A. T., Luby S. P., Perveen G. Smoking among males in a low socioeconomic area of Karachi. J Pak Med Assoc. 1998 Mar;48(3):62–63. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Narayan K. M., Chadha S. L., Hanson R. L., Tandon R., Shekhawat S., Fernandes R. J., Gopinath N. Prevalence and patterns of smoking in Delhi: cross sectional study. BMJ. 1996 Jun 22;312(7046):1576–1579. doi: 10.1136/bmj.312.7046.1576. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Schlecht N. F., Franco E. L., Pintos J., Negassa A., Kowalski L. P., Oliveira B. V., Curado M. P. Interaction between tobacco and alcohol consumption and the risk of cancers of the upper aero-digestive tract in Brazil. Am J Epidemiol. 1999 Dec 1;150(11):1129–1137. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009938. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Stamler R., Stamler J., Riedlinger W. F., Algera G., Roberts R. H. Weight and blood pressure. Findings in hypertension screening of 1 million Americans. JAMA. 1978 Oct 6;240(15):1607–1610. doi: 10.1001/jama.240.15.1607. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Stewart P. M., Wallace A. M., Valentino R., Burt D., Shackleton C. H., Edwards C. R. Mineralocorticoid activity of liquorice: 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase deficiency comes of age. Lancet. 1987 Oct 10;2(8563):821–824. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(87)91014-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Williamson D. F., Madans J., Anda R. F., Kleinman J. C., Giovino G. A., Byers T. Smoking cessation and severity of weight gain in a national cohort. N Engl J Med. 1991 Mar 14;324(11):739–745. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199103143241106. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Tobacco Control are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES