Forwarded from our sister forum CHIFA (child health and rights):
Waterpipe smoking (WPS) is often believed to be less dangerous than cigarette smoking. Since the 1990s, marketing of WPS with fruit-flavoured tobacco has intensified, targeting young people and especially women. In contrast to cigarette smoking, a survey among adolescents aged 14-19 in Bissau showed no gender difference in the lifetime prevalence of WPS (17,7%) or within <30 days (15.0%). Significant factors among both groups were higher classes (not age), alcohol use and having been victims of sexual violence. An overlapping of factors suggests prevention focusing on less stigmatising substance use, like WPS, and firmer implementation of already agreed international protocols.
See Adolescents 2024, 4(1), 138-157; https://doi.org/10.3390/adolescents4010010 <https://doi.org/10.3390/adolescents4010010>
Regards,
Geir Gunnlaugsson MD, PhD, MPH Geir Gunnlaugsson is Professor of Global Health at the University of Iceland. He graduated with a medical diploma (MD) from this university with post-graduate training in paediatrics (PhD) and public health (MPH) at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Research and publications on, e.g., breastfeeding, infant and child mortality, child development and abuse, measles, cholera, and health systems in Iceland, Guinea-Bissau and Malawi. He was the General Secretary of ISSOP International Society for Social Pediatrics and Child Health in 2009-2017, and currently chairman of Africa 20:20 an Icelandic NGO to promote interest and knowledge on sub-Saharan Africa. Email:geirATgeirsson.com
