"2021 Chinese College Students Tobacco Epidemic Survey" released
Smoking rate among boys in higher vocational colleges reaches 20%
May 31st is World No Tobacco Day.
On this day, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention released the data of the "2021 Chinese College Students Tobacco Epidemic Survey" (hereinafter referred to as the "Survey").
The "Survey" shows that the smoking rate of college students in my country is 7.8%, and the smoking rate of boys (15.0%) is higher than that of girls (1.1%).
The smoking rate of higher vocational/higher vocational colleges (11.6%) was higher than that of provincial colleges (5.0%) and subordinate or provincial-ministerial co-constructed colleges (3.0%).
It is worth noting that the smoking rate of boys in higher vocational schools is as high as 21.2%.
Jiang Yuan, vice president of the China Tobacco Control Association and former director of the Tobacco Control Office of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that the earlier you smoke and the longer you smoke, the more harmful tobacco is to the body.
It is understood that in 2021, in accordance with the work deployment of the National Health Commission, and with the support of local health and education departments, the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention will organize and complete the first national college student tobacco epidemic survey.
In 2021, the Tobacco Epidemic Survey of Chinese College Students will cover 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country, and a total of 124,119 individual questionnaires will be completed.
Jiang Yuan has been engaged in tobacco control work for more than 20 years. She told reporters that most of the students who smoke underestimate the difficulty of quitting smoking. They think that they can quit smoking after work and marriage, so there is no psychological burden when trying to smoke.
However, quitting smoking is often harder than you think.
On the eve of World No Tobacco Day, "Prevalence and Influencing Factors of Tobacco Dependence in my country: Based on the 2018 National Residents' Health Literacy Monitoring Survey Results" was published in the sub-journal of the internationally renowned medical journal "The Lancet".
The results of this study show that about 183.5 million smokers in my country suffer from tobacco dependence.
Among smokers, the prevalence of tobacco dependence is as high as 49.7%, and smokers with tobacco dependence are less likely to successfully quit smoking.
Academician Wang Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, is one of the corresponding authors of the above research results.
Tobacco dependence is significantly associated with smoking behavior, he said, and the more daily smoking and the earlier the age of starting smoking, the greater the risk of developing tobacco dependence.
He also emphasized that tobacco dependence is inherently a highly relapsing, fatal chronic disease that requires specialized treatment.
Tobacco smoke contains a large number of harmful substances, including at least 69 known carcinogens, which can cause serious harm to health.
At the same time, tobacco also contains highly addictive substances - nicotine.
Jiang Yuan explained that it is the dependence of tobacco caused by nicotine that causes many smokers to smoke in large quantities for a long time, and smoking can damage almost all organs of the body, and one out of every two smokers will die prematurely due to smoking.
The "China Smoking Harmful Health Report 2020" clearly pointed out that smoking is a common risk factor for a variety of chronic respiratory diseases, malignant tumors, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and diabetes.
There are also many college students who are aware of the health hazards of smoking.
The "Survey" shows that the awareness rate of college students that smoking can cause lung cancer is 86.8%, that it can cause heart disease is 61.3%, the awareness rate that it can cause stroke is 56.4%, and the awareness rate that it can cause impotence is 50.6%.
What is worrying is that only 21.6% of college students believe that the harm of low-tar cigarettes is similar to that of ordinary cigarettes, and the proportion of correct perceptions of low-tar cigarettes is low.
Jiang Yuan said that the reason why low-tar cigarettes are designed into the questionnaire is that tobacco manufacturers will now play low-tar "gimmicks", making smokers mistakenly think that there are fewer harmful ingredients inhaled.
"As tar decreases, nicotine also decreases, so smokers smoke deeper and more. We did research and found that people who smoked low tar fumes had the same levels of carcinogens in their urine and blood as other smokers. In addition, low-tar cigarette smokers are less likely to quit because they feel they have found a healthy lifestyle, Jiang Yuan said.
The "Survey" also pointed out that 52.5% of college students who are currently smoking plan to quit smoking in the next 12 months, and 31.2% plan to quit smoking in the next 1 month.
33.0% of college students who currently smoke have tried to quit smoking in the past 12 months.
Academician Wang Chen appealed that at present, both the public and academia, lack of attention to the prevention and control of tobacco dependence. In the face of such a large number of smokers suffering from tobacco dependence, it is urgent to increase the attention of the Chinese government, the medical community and the public. , strengthen the propaganda that "tobacco dependence is a chronic disease that needs treatment", raise the social awareness of tobacco dependence, and strive to make the public recognize tobacco dependence as well as high blood pressure and diabetes.
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Liu Changrong Source: China Youth Daily