Estimating the beginning of the waterpipe epidemic in Syria

BackgroundWaterpipe smoking is becoming a global public health problem, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMR).MethodsWe try in this study, which is a cross sectional survey among a representative sample of waterpipe smokers in cafes/restaurants in Aleppo-Syria, to assess the time period for the beginning of this new smoking hype. We recruited 268 waterpipe smokers (161 men, 107 women; mean age ± standard deviation (SD) 30.1 ± 10.2, response rate 95.3%). Participants were divided into 4 birth cohorts (≤ 1960, 1961–1970, 1971–1980, >1980) and year of initiation of waterpipe smoking and daily cigarette smoking were plotted according to these birth cohorts.ResultsData indicate that unlike initiation of cigarette smoking, which shows a clear age-related pattern, the nineties was the starting point for most of waterpipe smoking implicating this time period for the beginning of the waterpipe epidemic in Syria.ConclusionThe introduction of new flavored and aromatic waterpipe tobacco (Maassel), and the proliferation of satellite and electronic media during the nineties may have helped spread the new hype all over the Arab World.

• Publication year

  2004

• Venue

  BMC Public Health

• Publication date

  2004-08-04

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1186/1471-2458-4-32PMID 15294023PMCID 514554
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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