• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.13 no.11
• /
• pp.5627-5632
• /
• 2012

Background: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of shisha smoking and associated factors among medical students in Malaysia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at the Management and Science University from December 2011 until March 2012. The questionnaire consisted of five sections including socio-demographic, social environment, knowledge about shisha, psychosocial factors, and personal shisha smoking behavior. Obtained data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 13). T-test was used to determine the relationships between shisha smoking and socio-demographic characteristic. Results: A total number of 300 medical students participated in this study. Mean age was $22.5{\pm}2.5$ years. The majority were female, Malay, single, from urban areas (67%, 54%, 97%, 73%; respectively). The prevalence of shisha smoking among medical students was found to be 20%. The study revealed that many students believed that shisha does not contains nicotine, carbon monoxide, does not lead to lung cancer, dental problems and does not lead to cardiovascular diseases (25%, 20.7%, 22.3%, 29%, 26.7%; respectively). Age and sex were found to be significantly associated with smoking shisha status among medical students (p=0.029, p<0.001; respectively). Furthermore, having parents, siblings and friends smokers of shisha were found to be significantly associated with shisha smoking status (p<0.001, p<0.001, p<0.001; respectively). Furthermore, family problems, problems with friends, financial problems and university life were found to significantly associated with shisha smoking status among medical students (p<0.001, p=0.002, p<0.001, p=0.002; respectively). Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of shisha smoking and a poor knowledge about its impact on health among medical students. More attention is needed to focus on medical education in this regard. The policies that are currently employed in order to reduce the cigarettes smoking should be applied to shisha smoking and shisha products.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.24
• /
• pp.10841-10846
• /
• 2015

Background: Smoking is a primary risk factor for cancer development. While most research has focused on smoking cigarettes, the increasing popularity of shisha or water pipe smoking has received less attention. This study measured the prevalence and risk factors for shisha and cigarette smoking and related knowledge. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in Shah Alam, Malaysia. Participants aged ${\geq}18years$ were selected from restaurants. Data regarding demographic variables, smoking patterns, and knowledge about shisha smoking were collected in local languages. Logistic regression was performed to assess risk factors. Results: Of 239 participants, 61.9 % were male and 99.2% revealed their smoking status. Some 57.4% were smokers: 50.7% only cigarettes, 5.9% only shisha and 42% both. Mean age of starting cigarette smoking was $17.5{\pm}2.4years$ and for shisha smoking $18.7{\pm}2.0years$. In a univariate model, male gender, age 33-52 years and monthly income > MYR 4,000 increased the risk and unemployment and being a student decreased the risk. In a multivariate model, male gender increased the risk of smoking, while being a student decreased the risk, adjusting for age and income. The perception of shisha being less harmful than cigarettes was present in 14.6% and 7.5% had the opinion that shisha is not harmful at all, while 21.7% said that it is less addictive than cigarettes, 39.7% said that shisha did not contain tar and nicotine, 34.3% said that it did not contain carbon monoxide and 24.3% thought that shisha did not cause health problems. Conclusions: Prevalence of shisha and cigarette smoking is high in the general population in Malaysia and knowledge about shisha smoking is relatively low. The findings of our study might have implications for understanding similarities and differences in incidence of shisha and cigarette smoking in other cultural/geographic regions.

• East Asian mathematical journal
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.27-39
• /
• 2003

Integral inequalities of Gruss type obtained via $P\acute{o}lya-Szeg\ddot{o}$ and Shisha-Mond results are given. Some applications for Taylor's generalized expansion are also provided.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.427-430
• /
• 2015

Background: Dokha is a novel form of smoking in United Arab Emirates (UAE) on which there is very little published literature, especially among adolescents, and this form of smoking has been not been addressed adequately in the smoking cessation strategies in the UAE. Objectives: To assess the prevalence of dokha smoking among male secondary school students in Ajman UAE. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted among male secondary school students in Ajman, UAE. A total of 560 participants filled in self-administered questionnaires. Results: The prevalence of ever smokers was 39%; ever dokha smokers was 36% and current dokha smokers was 24%. The prevalence is very high when compared to other forms of smoking in the region and globally. Prevalence increased with increasing age and grade of students, prevalence of ever smokers, ever dokha smokers and current dokha smokers was lower in students in the science stream. 40% of the smokers used dokha, cigarettes and shisha, 30% used dokha and cigarettes, and 21% used dokha alone. 30% of the students smoked dokha on all days of the month. Conclusions: The prevalence of ever smokers, ever dokha smokers and current dokha smokers is very high. There is an urgent need for specific health promotion programs tailored to this age group on prevention of dokha smoking and policies restricting the availability of dokha to this age group.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.17 no.12
• /
• pp.5113-5119
• /
• 2016

Purpose:The present qualitative study explored adolescents' perceptions regarding effective strategies to prevent adolescents from using tobacco products (TP). Apart from the commercial TPs, there has been emerging use of alternatives such as vapes, e-cigarettes and shisha. This unfortunate phenomenon continues despite the currently available preventive strategies. Thus, understanding of the perceptions of the current generation would be valuable to provide new insights. Methods: Purposive sampling was utilized to recruit 40 adolescents between the age of 15 and 16 years old attending public daily secondary schools. Eight focus group discussions were conducted among the TP users, ex-users and non-users. Data were analyzed using a thematic content analysis procedure with NVivo. Results: Among barriers with the currently available strategies were having teachers who smoke tobacco, addiction to nicotine and self-perceptions of being healthy. The content of any program should include knowledge on negative outcomes of using tobacco products and awareness of the legislation together with ways to overcome peer and family influence including improving self-efficacy and refusal skills. Strategies were suggested to be delivered using information technology which provides interactive learning and visual effects. Conclusions: Adolescents agreed that the content and delivery of tobacco use prevention strategies need to be revised to suit the current generation to ensure sustainability.

• Strategy21
• /
• s.30
• /
• pp.31-62
• /
• 2012

It is a commons sense that the Republic of Korea is a maritime state that depends its survival on International Trade and International Economy. Korea was a peninsula and do it can be both maritime and continental state by its choice. However, after the national division in 1945, South Korea had became a virtual island and pursue a maritime way for national development in the past 60 plus years. Now, South Korea is becoming a world's 12 th largest major trading and maritime state. South Korea has far more ships per capita than any other nations in the world and its economy is heavily depend upon the imports and exports with other nations in the world that pass through the oceans. Therefore, the Koreans regard the security of the sea lanes of communication as vital to the survival of the nation. The SLOC is the life line for Republic of Korea. Since the early 1990s, immediately after the Cold War was over, South Koreans began to recognize the importance of Sea Routes and thus began to build a navy that can handle with the new problems of the post Cold War era. However, the maritime security environments of the Republic of Korea today is shaky and dangerous. Almost every water near the Korean peninsula, some kind of international confrontations are going on. Territorial disputes on Dok do, Senkaku, Scarbrough, Shisha, Nansha and Eodo between and among Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Phillipines, Indonesia and Vietnam are the examples. In this essay, the author argues that the S. Korean efforts and capabilities to deal with these challenges are not enough and exhorts more efforts and more powerful navy for the Korean people.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.11
• /
• pp.4615-4621
• /
• 2015

Background: The popularity of the water pipe, also referred to as hookah, narghile, shisha or hubble-bubble, has increased tremendously during the past few decades. This study was conducted to determine student water pipe smoking status and perceptions about the effects of water pipe smoking on health in a state university in Ankara. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between September 2014 and January 2015. The data were collected with a questionnaire and "The Scale of Perception about the Effects of Water Pipe Smoking on Health". The data obtained were evaluated in IBM SPSS (version 20.0) statistical package program in computer. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for the analyses by checking homogeneity of variances and Student's t-test. Values of p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The total mean score obtained by young people who took part in the study was determined as ($\bar{X}=65.20{\pm}1.25$, min=33, max=75). Upon comparison of the total mean scores obtained by young people from the Scale of Perception about the effects of water pipe smoking on health and gender variable, the scores obtained by the females students were higher than those of the male students with a statistically significant difference (t=7.525, p<0.05). A statistically significant difference was observed between the total mean scores obtained by young people with cigarette and water pipe smoking status (for each, t=-3.731, p<0.05; t=-13.987, p<0.05). Conclusions: In conclusion, university students have wrong knowledge on the dangers of water pipe smoking. There was a high prevalence of using water pipes among university students. Gender significantly affected the perceptions about the effect of water pipe smoking on health in our sample.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.1977-1980
• /
• 2014

Background: The popularity of the narghile waterpipe, also referred to as hookah, shisha or hubble-bubble has increased tremendously during the past few decades. The aim of this study was to expose perception of narghile among a representative sample of university students in Sakarya University campus. Materials and Methods: Written approval was taken from the local education authority. An anonymous questionnaire which was prepared by the investigators and contained 17 questions was administered. Nine of the questions were related to socio-demographic characteristics and eight were related to the students harm perceptions about waterpipe. A total of 1,320 questionnaries were received and after preliminary evaluation 1,255 (95.7%) were found to be suitable for evaluation. The data was evaluated in SPSS program by using percentages and averages. Results: The $mean{\pm}SD$ age of the students was $20.8{\pm}2.29$ years (min 18, max 32). There were 864 (68.8%) females and 391 (31.2%) males. A total of 6.3 % of the students (n=79) believed that waterpipe is not harmful because its smoke does not burn the lungs. Almost one-third (n=318) think that the carcinogenic chemicals are filtered while waterpipe smoke passes from the water; 12.1 % of the students (n=152) checked "true" for the statement of "waterpipe smoke contains no nicotine". It is seen that 14.0 % of the students (n=176) think waterpipe with fruit/aroma is healthier than plain waterpipe. Conclusions: As a result of this study, it is found out that a substantial number of university students have false beliefs on harmful effects of waterpipe smoking.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.757-762
• /
• 2014

Smoking is recognized as a health problem worldwide and there is an established tobacco epidemic in Saudi Arabia as in many other countries, with tobacco users at increased risk of developing many diseases. This cross sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence of oral mucosal, potentially malignant or malignant, lesions associated with tobacco use among a stratified cluster sample of adults in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A sample size of 599 was collected and each participant underwent clinical conventional oral examination and filled a questionnaire providing information on demographics, tobacco use and other relevant habits. The most common form of tobacco used was cigarette smoking (65.6 %) followed by Shisha or Moasel (38.1%), while chewing tobacco, betel nuts and gat accounted for 21-2%, 7.7%, and 5% respectively. A high prevalence (88.8%) of soft tissue lesions was found among the tobacco users examined, and a wide range of lesions were detected, about 50% having hairy tongue, 36% smoker's melanosis, 28.9% stomatitis nicotina, 27% frictional keratosis, 26.7% fissured tongue, 26% gingival or periodontal inflammation and finally 20% leukodema. Suspicious potentially malignant lesions affected 10.5% of the subjects, most prevalent being keratosis (6.3%), leukoplakia (2.3%), erythroplakia (0.7%), oral submucous fibrosis (0.5%) and lichenoid lesions (0.4%), these being associated with male gender, lower level of education, presence of diabetes and a chewing tobacco habit. It is concluded that smoking was associated with a wide range of oral mucosal lesions, those suspicious for malignancy being linked with chewable forms, indicating serious effects.