It is heartening indeed that tobacco use among students aged 13-15 in Qatar has come down significantly, as revealed by the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) 2018, released by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). Another welcome piece of news is that taxes on tobacco products and fizzy drinks will go up in Qatar soon, boosting the fight against the tobacco menace and obesity. The prevalence rate of tobacco use among students has come down to 12.1% compared to about 15% in the previous survey in 2013, as explained by Dr Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad al-Thani, director of Public Health at MoPH, last month.
The GYTS, a component of the Global Tobacco Surveillance system, is a global standard for systematically monitoring youth tobacco use and tracking key tobacco control indicators. The cross-sectional, nationally representative school-based survey covers students in grades associated with ages 13 to 15 years. In Qatar, GYTS was conducted in 2018 by the MoPH. The survey included Qataris and non-Qataris.The overall response rate was 89%. A total of 2,328 eligible students in grades 7 – 9 completed the survey, of which 1,608 were aged 13 -15 years.
According to the survey, tobacco products are used by 12.1% of students with 15.7% of boys, and 8.7% of girls. A total of 10.7% of students, with (13.8% of boys, and 7.7% of girls) currently smoked tobacco; 6.6% of students, (10.2% of boys, and 3.3% of girls) smoked cigarettes and 4.5% of students, (6.4% of boys and 2.7% of girls) used smokeless tobacco. It was found that 11.3% of students, (15% of boys, and 7.8% of girls) use electronic cigarettes in Qatar. More than five in 10 (54.5%) current tobacco smokers tried to stop smoking in the past 12 months while more than five in 10 (50.1%) tobacco smokers wanted to stop smoking now.
The survey also found out that 24.5% of students were exposed to tobacco smoke at home and 41.8% to tobacco smoke inside enclosed public places. As many as 54.3% of current cigarette smokers bought cigarettes from a store or shop, street vendor, kiosk, or cafeteria. Among cigarette smokers who tried to buy cigarettes, 69.1% were not prevented from buying them because of their age. Almost 5 in 10 (46.2%) students noticed anti-tobacco messages in the media and almost 3 in 10 (28.3%) students noticed tobacco advertisements or promotions when visiting points of sale. A total of 55.6% of students thought other people’s tobacco smoking is harmful to them while 71.5% favoured prohibiting smoking inside enclosed public places.
This is the fourth round of GYTS survey, done every five years, and Qatar has done it in 2004, 2007, 2013 and now in 2018. The prevalence rate was 20% in 2004 and now we have reached 12% which is among the best in the world and actually the best in the GCC, as explained by Sheikh Mohamed. The official also revealed that a plan has been accepted by the Ministry of Finance to raise the taxes on tobacco to the same levels as in the neighbouring countries. Qatar is waiting for the right time to implement it and it can happen any time soon, he hoped. The final decision on the implementation will be taken by the Cabinet and the Ministry of Finance. Such a move is most welcome and timely.