A fair share of adult girls who are smokers became addicted to smoking when they were children. A latest study published in Indian Journal of Youth and Adolscent Health titled 'Smoking Amongst Young College Girls in Mumbai: Prevalence and Predisposing Factors,' studies thousand girls between 18 to 25 years for their smoking behaviours.
Of the 1000 girls, 292 girls (29%) said that they were smokers. While over a hundred girls said that they smoke both cigarettes and hookahs, upto 157 (16%) preferred to smoke only hookah, while 3% girls said they smoked only cigarettes.
What is further shocking is upto 25% of those girls who smoke, took to smoking when they were between 14 to 17 years, while a majority, 69% took to smoking between 18 to 21 years. Family history of smoking and peer influence are crucial factors for persons who take up smoking. In 89% of girls who smoked, either their mother or father were non-smokers. However, 24% girls who smoked had fathers who were smokers. In 49% of girls who smoked, they said that their uncles were smokers, and in 34% of the cases, they had siblings who smoked, and upto 60% of the girls had friends who smoke.
While most girls (64%) smoke less than 5 cigarettes a day - 64%, 27% smoke between 5-10 cigarettes a day, 2% of girls smoke over ten cigarettes a day. 37% girls spend over Rs 50 per day on buying cigarettes, 20% spend over Rs 75 and 11% spend over Rs 100, while 3% spend between Rs 100 - 500.
95% girls knew that smoking has adverse effects on their health but they continued to smoke. Research states that women who smoke are more prone to developing cervical cancer, breast cancer and may have issues in concieving babies apart from health hazards that they share with men that emerge out of smoking.
While an estimated 53 lakh women in India were smokers in 1980, this number has risen upto 1.27 crores in 2012, according to Smoking Prevalence and Cigarette Consumption in 187 Countries – 1980-2012, released last year.
In India, women specific tobacco-addiction quitting programmes are rare, which means that they may find it difficult to get the right help and counselling to help them quit. In this scenario, a minority of women smokers (36%) had tried to quit smoking and a little less than half were successful in giving up the puff. Girls had used a variety of mechanisms to give up the addiction ranging from chewing nicotine gums to seeking counselling. Another 38% girls have a very strong desire to quit smoking but they haven't reached there yet.
Evidence suggests that women find it harder to quit smoking. "On the top of that the tobacco companies are targeting women by marketing light, mild, and menthol cigarettes, and introducing advertising directed at women. Therefore, the greatest challenge and opportunity in primary preventive health in India is to avert the predicted rise in smoking among women,"said Dr Shivani Chowdhury Salian, head of Department, Electrotherapy and Electrodiagnosis, School of Physiotherapy, DY Patil University at Nerul in Navi Mumbai and the primary author of the study.
...& ANALYSIS
27% girls started smoking because their friends were smoking
25% smoked because of stress and studies
17% had the curiosity to try it
12% smoked for fun
69% started smoking between the age of 18-20 years
25% when they were between 14-17 years
64% girls have the greatest desire to smoke in the evening, and 77% of them generally smoke with friends
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