Smoking among adults in Syria: proxy reporting by 13-14 year olds

Despite active epidemiological research related to smoking in Syria in the past few years, there is currently no population-based prevalence data for adult smoking in this country. This study presents the first such figures based on information about the smoking habits of 3066 couples in Aleppo, Syria collected during a survey on respiratory morbidity among 13-14-year-old youths. Reports from the young people indicated levels of parental smoking to be 54% for men and 18% for women. This figure for women is twice that reported previously. The mean number of smokers within the studied households was one smoker per household. Smoking among women was found to be strongly associated with their educational status and their spouse's smoking status. This information is of major importance for public health efforts to deal with the smoking epidemic in Syria, as it indicates a hidden epidemic of smoking among women, most likely due to under-reporting.