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The Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) is a school-based survey designed to enhance the capacity of countries to monitor tobacco use among youth and to guide the implementation and evaluation of tobacco prevention and control programmes. The survey is a joint project between the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta (CDC) and the Canadian Public Health Association.
The GYTS uses a standard methodology for constructing the sampling frame, selecting schools and classes, preparing questionnaires, following consistent field procedures and using consistent data management procedures for data processing and analysis. Data are collected from each of WHO’s six regions. The survey includes questions on prevalence of cigarette and other tobacco use, attitudes
toward tobacco, media and advertising as well as smoking cessation. The information generated from the GYTS can be used to stimulate the development of tobacco control programmes and can serve as a means to assess progress in meeting programme goals.
Since 1999, all the countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region have conducted at least one round of the GYTS, 15 countries have conducted two rounds and one country has conducted three rounds. This publication highlights the trends in five important variables of tobacco usage and exposure among school students (13-15 years) across the countries of the Region. The variables are: current users of
cigarettes; current users of other tobacco products besides cigarettes; never smokers who are susceptible to start smoking; and exposure to second-hand smoke at home and in public places.
The results show a high percentage of cigarette users among young teenagers, a trend that is rising in many countries, and a rising trend in the use of other tobacco products, such as the water pipe. The percentage of teenagers who are susceptible to starting smoking is particularly worrying since it indicates that current tobacco control messages are either not reaching or are not having adequate impact on this vulnerable age group. Only a few countries show an improvement in the high percentages of young people exposed to second-hand smoke in the home or in public places.
The action of young people today is a predictor of the health of tomorrow’s adults. The youth of the Region are easy prey to the subversive messaging of the tobacco industry and to the popularization of the water pipe. Clearly, tobacco control programmes need to step up their efforts to reduce consumption, through raising awareness of the health issues at stake and promotion of tobacco cessation, and to implement firm policies in favour of smoke-free environments.
Tobacco Info
Tobacco is an annual or bi-annual growing 1-3 meters tall with large sticky leaves that contain nicotine. Native to the Americas, tobacco has a long history of use as a shamanic inebriant and stimulant. It is extremely popular and well-known for its addictive potential.
Nicotiana rustica leaves. Nicotiana rustica leaves have a nicotine content as high as 9%, whereas Nicotiana tabacum (common tobacco) leaves contain about 1 to 3%
A cigar is a tightly rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco which is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sumatra, Philippines, and the Eastern United States.
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines. In consumption it may be in the form of cigarettes smoking, snuffing, chewing, dipping tobacco, or snus.
Cigarettes are smoking products consumed by people and made out of cut tobacco leaves. Cigars are typically composed completely of whole-leaf tobacco. A cigarette has smaller size, composed of processed leaf, and white paper wrapping. The term cigarette refers to a tobacco cigarette too but it can apply to similar devices containing other herbs, such as cannabis.
