The Youth tobacco epidemic in Asia

Abstract

This report examines smoking behavior among 15-19 year olds in five Asian countries: Indonesia Nepal the Philippines Taiwan and Thailand using national level youth surveys collected in recent years. Smoking prevalence among young men aged 15-19 is high: 38% in Indonesia 33% in Thailand 30% in Taiwan 28% in the Philippines and 12% in Nepal. Smoking prevalence is very low among young women in all of the Asian countries under study the highest being 5 percent in Taiwan. It is lowest among Indonesian women. In countries where we have data we found that a large proportion of teen smokers tried to quit or want to quit smoking sometime but that most teens who have tried quitting did not succeed. In Indonesia and Philippines where we have information on parents attitudes on smoking parents are found to be very permissive about their sons smoking but not about their daughters smoking. Parents attitudes as perceived by their children are closely related to smoking behavior among 15-19 year old youth in Indonesia and the Philippines. Parents are found to affect their childrens smoking behavior in other ways as well: children who have close relationships with parents are less likely to be smokers. Indonesian young men are less likely to smoke if they had frequent conservations with fathers while they were growing up. Filipino women whore where raised by two parents have lower probability of smoking than young women who where not raised by two parents but this factor does not affect young mens smoking behavior. In Taiwan having a lot of time with father lowers young mens smoking prevalence and talking to mother at times of trouble lowers smoking prevalence of both young men and women. Urban residence has some affects smoking behavior among Filipino women. Young men aged 15-19 living in Manila are much more likely to smoke than young Filipino women living elsewhere. This finding indicates that modernizations may increase womens smoking in the Philippines. Our analysis shows only weak associations between parents education and the smoking behavior of young men and women. Only in Nepal they are found to have statistically significant effects but the effects on young men and on young women are opposite. For young men the relationship is positive and for young women the relationship is negative. Smoking is much more prevalent among youth who have experienced some transitions to adulthood such as leaving school living away from parents and having married. It is imperative that health education program delivers strong messages about the health risks of smoking as well as the strong addictive nature of smoking. It is important to help youth realize that they cannot just begin smoking enjoy it for a while and then quit. Parents have potentially important roles in reducing youth tobacco epidemic. Having firm attitude against smoking and having close relationships with their children are likely to reduce the probability of their childrens smoking. Communities need to provide substitute roles of parents for youth who are not living with their parents. Educational systems families media and community leaders and organizations need to work together to change the images of adulthood. They should work together to provide alternative activities to smoking for youth who want to behave like adults. Married youth aged 15-19 in Nepal and Indonesia are more likely to be smokers than single youth. In Nepal and Indonesia where early marriage and childbearing is common young married women need to be informed about health risk associated with smoking during pregnancies such as giving low birth weights and high probability of perinatal complications. (authors)