Smoking rate declining among Indian men

A new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington has revealed that India has made progress in reducing the prevalence of daily smoking among men

Smoking is the third top risk for health loss in India, leading to nearly one million deaths each year in the country.

Between 1980 and 2012, smoking prevalence among Indian men decreased from 33.8 percent to 23 percent.

According to the research India has more female smokers – over 12.1 million – than any country except the United States.

In 2012, female smoking prevalence was 3.2 percent, which is virtually unchanged since 1980

“Smoking rates remain dangerously high for men and there is more work to be done to drive these rates lower,” Dr. Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India, said in response to the findings.

“The high number of female smokers in India is also troubling,” he said

These developments in India have taken place against an increasingly complex global backdrop.

Trends in age-standardized tobacco use vary greatly by country and gender, with places such as Mexico and Canada seeing rapid declines while others, such as Russia and China, seeing increases since 2006.

Male smokers continue to outnumber female smokers and, since 1980, the global rate of decline in female smoking prevalence was consistently faster than in men.

The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.