Comparison of cigarette and water pipe smoking among female university students in Egypt

Abstract

This study investigated behavioral and sociodemographic factors associated with tobacco use among female university students patronizing water pipe cafes in Cairo, Egypt. We interviewed two groups of female university student smokers (100 and 96 students from a public and a private university, respectively). The interviews took place in nine water pipe cafes near the two universities. A logistic regression model was developed to analyze the relationship between tobacco-related knowledge and beliefs and the choice between smoking water pipe or cigarettes. Among these smokers, 27% smoked cigarettes only, 37.8% smoked water pipe only, and 35.2% smoked both types of tobacco. Most of the water pipe smokers (74.1%) preferred this method because they believe it to be less harmful than smoking cigarettes. More than half of the subjects were encouraged to start smoking by other females (56.6%). Curiosity was a significant factor for initiation (OR = 2.8, 95% CI = 1.3-6.2, p<.01). We found no significant differences between water pipe and cigarette smokers regarding current age, age at initiation, quit attempts, knowledge about the hazards of smoking, wanting to be fashionable, or smoking with friends. About one in four (23.7%) attempted to quit, with health cited as a major reason. An urgent need exists for correction of the misperception among this study population that water pipe smoking is safe and less harmful than cigarette smoking.

Smoking habits and attitudes among university students in Palestine: a cross-sectional study

“…The rising rate of smoking among women in Arab countries has been a focus for several studies, especially the increasing use of waterpipe smoking among young women. For example, an Egyptian study investigating behavioural and sociodemographic factors associated with tobacco use among female university students in Cairo found an urgent need to correct a misperception that waterpipe smoking is safer and less harmful than cigarette smoking [17]. Waterpipe smoking is known to be popular in the Nablus area among both males and females, which might explain the high rate of smoking among female university students at An-Najah University.…”

Shisha Smoking and Associated Factors among Medical Students in Malaysia

“…Opposite findings reported by Maziak et al (2004) who reported that 89% of the participants thought that shisha is less harmful than cigarettes. A study from Egypt revealed that 74% of female students believed that shisha smoking is less harmful than cigarette smoking (Labib et al, 2007). There is a false perception that shisha smoking is safer than cigarette smoking, perhaps because the invention of shisha smoking involves the passage of smoke through water that is presumed to filter the smoke and remove toxic agents (Kandela, 2000;WHO 2005;Dawn 2006).…”

Prevalence and correlates of substance use by Egyptian school youth

“…Substance use in Egypt has been emerging as a public health problem with increasingly high prevalence among youth (UNODC, 2012). It is more commonly reported by boys than girls, often involves the use of cannabis, and is characterized by an increasingly permissive attitude towards waterpipe tobacco smoking (Abou Eleinen, Mostafa, Ghanem, Elnaggar, & Elbayomy, 2008;Al-Youm, 2012;Hamdi et al, 2012;Labib et al, 2007;Viney, 2012).…”