Tobacco use among students aged 13-15 years--Kurdistan Region, Iraq, 2005
Author: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Source:
MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 55(20), 556.
Tobacco use is one of the major preventable causes of premature death and disease
in the world. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS), part of the Global Tobacco
Surveillance System initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO), CDC, and
the Canadian Public Health Association, was developed to monitor tobacco use,
attitudes about tobacco, and exposure to secondhand smoke among youths and has
been conducted in 140 countries. This report presents findings from the GYTS
conducted in the Kurdistan region of Iraq (i.e., Irbil, as-Sulaymaniyah, and
Dahuk governorates) in 2005, which revealed that one in 10 students currently
smoked cigarettes or used other tobacco products. Boys (21%) were statistically
significantly more likely than girls (2.1%) to smoke cigarettes, but no
significant difference was observed between boys and girls in their use of other
tobacco products. Public health authorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq can
use the baseline information from the GYTS to design and implement
tobacco-control programs to reduce youth smoking.