Prevalence of tobacco use among adult and adolescent females in Egypt

Egypt assessed tobacco use among young people and adults through implementation in 2009 of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) among school students aged 13-15 years and the nationally representative Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) among adults aged 15+ years. Both surveys employed cluster sampling to produce nationally representative samples and used standard core questionnaires with optional, country-specific questions. The results indicated that a higher percentage of adolescent girls in Egypt used tobacco than did adult females. Overall, 3.8% of girls aged 13-15 years used some form of tobacco compared with 0.6% of women aged 15+ years. Adolescents were over 14 times more likely than adult women to currently smoke cigarrettes and 11 times more likely to smoke waterpipes. Moreover, the prevalence of cigarette smoking among adolescent girls had increased from 1.4% in the 2005 GYTS to 2.8% in 2009, indicating that social and cultural norms may be changing.