Pakistan:PMRC study reveals 19.7% students smoke shisha

A study conducted by Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC) Thursday revealed that prevalence of shisha smoking among college and university students aged 20-25 years in the country is 19.7%.

The study was conducted in 71 educational institutions. Overall prevalence of shisha smoking in this study was 19.7%, out of which, 29.8% were males and 10.4% were females. According to the report, shisha smoking is started at the age of 17-18 years in 57.2% and about 75% started shisha smoking in the year 2009-10. The highest trend of shisha smoking is 28.1% in federal Capital and lowest is in Peshawar, 11.2%. According to permanent place of residence mentioned by the students, highest trend was in Islamabad (36.3%), and lowest (6.6%) in Azad Jammu Kashmir. The study revealed that according to professional background, highest trend was in Engineering institutes (29%). In this study, pleasure seeking was the common reason of shisha smoking among 7.1% students, while 11.1% were influenced by their friends. It was also found that 23.8% students smoke shisha just for enjoyment. About 12.1% smoked in shisha cafe, majority preferred flavour of double apple and mint. Around 12.1% students stated that shisha is less harmful than cigarette smoking and 3.3% students mentioned that smoke is passed through filter. When contacted, Executive Director PMRC, Dr. Huma Qureshi said age, gender, socio-economic status and cigarette smoking are the important predictors for shisha smoking. Knowledge regarding shisha smoking is tremendously low, attitude is poor and majority considers the practice safer than cigarette smoking, she said.