Ground-breaking study shows more needs to be done to curb smoking in SA

A new study on SA smoking is set to cause waves internationally due to its novel research technique – and the detailed information it reveals about how smoking increases the risk of contracting fatal diseases.

South African researchers have uncovered shocking details of how smoking kills South Africans via tobacco-related diseases.

By using a new research methodology, South Africa has become the first country in the world to gather data that allows the health impact of smoking within the population to be monitored – and has been able to get special insight into how smoking affects the risk individuals have for contracting serious smoking-related diseases like tuberculosis, lung cancer, stroke, throat and mouth cancer, as well as various lung and heart diseases.

“The study has led to a new understanding about how smoking affects people dying of serious smoking-related diseases in South Africa and it could do the same elsewhere in the world,” says Professor Krisela Steyn, Associate Director of the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa (CDIA).  CDIA is a collaborative research initiative that seeks to develop and evaluate models for chronic disease care and the prevention of their risk factors.

Dr Debbie Bradshaw of the Medical Research Council and a member of CDIA is one of the leading participants in this mortality study and says “We have known about the link between smoking and mortality for many decades, but did not know the magnitude of the problem.”  She explains that, by adding a simple yes/no question about smoking history to routine death certification, researchers gained access to over 480 000 death records between 1999 and 2007 revealing the impact of a lifelong smoking pattern. The study found particularly high tobacco related mortality in the coloured population for whom smoking causes one in four of all deaths in middle-aged men and one in six of all deaths in middle-aged women.

According to the latest national statistics in the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Sanhanes -1), 16.4% of South Africans were smokers in 2012. This is a significant drop from 32% in 1993, which has been largely attributed to stricter smoking legislation, advertising limitations and steeper tobacco prices. Professor Steyn says that even though smoking has decreased in South Africa, there are still far too many smokers. Smokers also expose family members to second-hand smoke, which also carries a health risk.

Of particular concern is smoking among young people. The Youth Risk Behaviour Survey found that 21% of Grade 8-11 learners smoke, with no change occurring between 2002 and 2008 – showing a resistance to warnings about smoking. “The key message is that we need to apply smoking legislation more strictly than in the past, we need to reach young people to help them understand that although they think they will live forever, they need to know they will die if they keep on smoking,” says Professor Steyn. “Young people’s idea that they are immune to risk is actually the biggest risk they are exposed to,” she says.

She quotes research that proves that if someone starts smoking in their late teens, their chance of dying of a smoking-related disease by the age of 60 is 50%. It is imperative to stop young people from taking up smoking as most adult smokers start smoking before 18, she says. Getting people to give up smoking is significantly harder than preventing an individual from smoking in the first place, considering the highly addictive nature of nicotine in tobacco.

In the recent report on the Global Burden of Disease in 2010, smoking is already the second most important risk factor for death worldwide, right behind hypertension. Professor Steyn believes the new study will make a valuable contribution to global tobacco research. “The rest of the world can learn from the South African survey and on how to use this important new weapon in the war on smoking-attributed disease.”

 

Issued by: Rothko PR on behalf of Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa
Contact details: Natasha Arendorf – 021 448 9457

Rothko PR Marketing Design, 225 Lower Main Road, Observatory, Cape Town.

 

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About CDIA

The Chronic Diseases Initiative for Africa is a collaboration between researchers of the Universities of Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Western Cape, the SA Medical Research Council, the Western Cape provincial government and Shree Hindu Mandal Hospital and Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Tanzania and Harvard University, USA. The Initiative will serve as a regional hub for developing and evaluating models for chronic disease care and prevention of their risk factors. The network aims to train chronic disease researchers and to work closely with government authorities in the formulation of cost-effective plans to reduce the impact of chronic diseases and their risk factors.

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