Although use of tobacco is widespread in Bangladesh, it is higher among the lower socio-economic groups in both rural and urban areas.
According to a recent study, the prevalence of smoking goes down with increasing levels of wealth in both rural and urban settings in the country.
The Centre for Control of Chronic Diseases in Bangladesh conducted the study among 39,038 individuals to determine the prevalence of risk-factors and chronic diseases in four Health and Demographic Surveillance Sites of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh.
The study was conducted in three rural settings of the country (Matlab in Chandpur, Abhaynagar in Jessore, and Mirsarai in Chittagong) and one urban setting (Kamlapur in capital Dhaka). A total of 13,584 men and 25,454 women aged 25 years and above were interviewed during the study.
On the use of tobacco and related products, information on current as well as previous use was collected. This information included duration and frequency of tobacco use in both smoking and non-smoking categories. Non-smoking use also included chewing of betel leaf since it is a common practice in Bangladesh to use a combination of betel, tobacco leaf and betel nut.
Among the male respondents, more than 50 per cent reported smoking at the time of interview while the rate was only one per cent among the female respondents.
The prevalence of current smoking peaked at the end of the fourth decade and beginning of the fifth decade of age in this population, with slightly lower rates in the urban respondents compared to the rural respondents.
Although the numbers are very small, prevalence of smoking in females goes up as age increases. The study showed that around 98 per cent of the women had never smoked, and only one per cent of the rural and urban women reported smoking at the time of interview.
On average, the number of sticks smoked daily was 12.5 for men in rural areas and 11.8 in the urban areas. Women in the urban areas who reported smoking, smoked slightly more (6.2 sticks daily) compared to women in the three rural sites (5.6 sticks daily).
Differences by age-group both in rural and urban settings are relatively small. The age group of 40-59 years show the highest frequency of smoking among the current smokers.
The study also shows that men from low-income groups not only smoke more frequently, but also they consume more sticks compared to men from high-income groups.
In the rural areas, currently-smoking men in the poorest quintile consumed on average 15 sticks per day compared to 10.3 in the least poor quintile. In the urban site, the average daily consumption for the same groups was 13.2 sticks and 9.4 sticks.
Consumption of cigarettes or related products in rural women does not seem to be related to their poverty status. In the urban site, currently-smoking women in the poorest quintile consumed 6.5 sticks daily compared to 4.8 sticks in the least poor quintile, says the study.
According to the WHO report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008, nearly two-thirds of the world’s smokers live in a group of 10 countries that includes Bangladesh.
Among the daily male smokers, 35 per cent were in developed countries and 50 per cent in developing countries.
Smoking is largely prevalent in males. Studies found that more than 66 per cent of men in the rural areas and 68 per cent of men in urban areas had experience of smoking, and almost 52 per cent and 55 per cent respectively reported smoking.
–With UNB/New Age input
