Attitudes, practice and addiction towards water-pipe/ shisha smoking in Lahore city

ABSTRACT

This study was aimed at assessing the various factors associated with shisha smoking such as attitudes, practice and addiction among the adult population aged 15 - 44 years in Lahore city. A cross-sectional survey was held in Shisha bars, tobacco shops and Shisha cafes along with some major undergraduate colleges and Universities of Lahore in summer of 2013. All adults aged between 15 and 44 years of age who consumed Shisha were included in the sample. All other age groups and people not smoking were excluded. The data for this study were collected with the participants using an approved self- administered questionnaire. Data analysis was done using the IBM SPSS version 20. The final sample size was 300 [male 194 and female 106]. The largest group was of young adults aged 21-25 years. Out of all the participants, 65% of the sample was smoking shisha for over a year. It was noteworthy that encouragement for shisha smoking was brought on more by friends [61%] as compared to colleagues [9%] and the money spent on such activities was utilized from their own pocket money [70.3%]. It was also observed that 42.3% of the sample recognized water-pipe/shisha as being a stress reliever and 68.7% admitted it to be a status symbol. Hence, 77.7% of the sample smoked shisha in the company of friends with 11.3% claiming to be completely addicted to it. In addition, 72.3% of the participants of this study refused to quit water-pipe/shisha smoking. Significance was found in Pearson's correlation between gender and duration, expenditure and frequency of consumption, addiction and duration, status symbol and stress reliever, company and status symbol and addiction with duration and wanting to quit [p < 0.05]. A high significance was observed in age with duration, expenditures, company, stress reliever and status symbol [p < 0.01]. Frequency of consumption with addiction, and stress reliever [p < 0.01]; stress reliever with age [p < 0.01]; addiction with stress reliever and status symbol [p < 0.01]; wanting to quit with gender and duration [p < 0.01]; and lastly expenditures with encouragement, addiction, status symbol and stress reliever [p < 0.01] were also observed in 2-tailed significance of Pearson's correlation. This study concludes that shisha smoking is responsible for a lot of ill-effects in the oral cavity apart from the body itself. This habit should be minimized and the misconceptions related to it should be made clear to all young population to avoid further harm to their health