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People who smoke cigarettes and also use other forms of tobacco have higher levels of nicotine addiction, find it more difficult to quit using tobacco, and are at greatly increased risk for tobacco-related health problems such as cancer, heart disease and stroke, warns a new government study.
Researchers from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention analysed data from 13 states included in the 2008 Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System and found that young adults aged 18 to 24 (5.7%), single people (4.8%) and men (4.4%) are most likely to use cigarettes in combination with other forms of tobacco such as cigars; pipes; bidis, a South Asian leaf-wrapped cigarette; and kreteks, cigarettes made with tobacco, cloves and other flavours.
The study appears in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the CDC.
It also found that one in four adults in the 13 states uses at least one form of tobacco.
Among the other findings:
- Rates of use of multiple tobacco products ranged from 1% to 3.7%.
- Use of any tobacco was higher among whites (26.2 %) and blacks (24.4 %) than among Hispanics (19.7% ).
- Married people (21.2%) were less likely to use any type of tobacco than those who were widowed/divorced (29.1%), single (30.3%), or members of an unmarried couple (36.3%).
- People with less than a high school education were more likely to use any type of tobacco than those with some college education or more - 33.1% vs. 20.5%.
"Every day, smoking kills more than 1 000 people and is the leading preventable cause of death. The more types of tobacco products people use, the greater their risk for many diseases caused by tobacco, such as cancer and heart disease," CDC Director Dr Thomas R. Frieden said in an agency news release. (August 2010)
(Copyright © 2010 HealthDay. All rights reserved.)
