Rabat hosts global youth tobacco survey workshop
Rabat is playing host January 10-12 to a workshop on the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, attended by researchers from 14 countries from the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
The workshop, sponsored by the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, is reviewing the status of tobacco consumption among young people in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, as a preparatory phase to the field implementation of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) in these States. The workshop is part of the comprehensive campaign carried out by WHO world wide to tackle the tobacco epidemic under its global Tobacco Free Initiative.
The GYTS is a school-based tobacco specific survey which focuses on adolescents aged 13 to 15. The survey, launched two years ago, seeks to obtain baseline data on tobacco use among young people in developing countries. Ultimately, it is hoped the survey will cover all 191 countries that are members of the WHO.
Addressing the workshop opening session Wednesday, Moroccan minister of health, Thami khyari, revealed that some 13.8 % of Moroccans aged over 20 are smokers and that the number of cigarettes addicts has increased over the past years.
Up to 21 % of Moroccan high-school students are smokers, he said before surveying the measures adopted by Morocco to fight smoking. Laws banning smoking and cigarettes ads in public areas were passed and children-oriented campaigns were staged to struggle against the plague.
An article published in the 78 volume of the WHO Bulletin on "Tobacco Use By Youth" indicates that a total of 50,207 school children aged 13 to 15 years in 14 countries (Barbados, China, Costa Rica, Fiji, Jordan, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Venezuela and Zimbabwe) responded to the survey questionnaire.
Up to 70% of children admitted to have smoked at some time in Ukraine, which topped the list for this questionnaire item.
With a 30% positive response, Poland scored highest for current child smokers (Ukraine and Russia lowest with 9%).
About half of all the children surveyed were exposed to second-hand smoke in their homes.
It was also noted that in every country but Barbados and Jordan, more than half the children (in China nearly 90% of them) said they wanted to stop smoking. About two thirds had tried to do so in the 12 months preceding the survey.