Raising the Age of Purchase and Use of Tobacco Product in Bangladesh: Benefits and Challenges in Protecting Youth from the Tobacco Epidemic.

Pranay Lal,Nirmalya Mukherjee,Arpita Mitra,Raju Sarkar,Sven Gudmund Hinderaker ,Amit Yadav

doi:10.31557/apjcp.2021.22.s2.65

Pranay Lal, Nirmalya Mukherjee + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.31557/apjcp.2021.22.s2.65

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Abstract

Tobacco use among young and adolescents is the biggest threat to public health globally. In Bangladesh, every one in 14 youth (13-15 years) uses tobacco in some form. While this problem is growing in the country, we estimate the underage initiation of tobacco use and present evidence that policy measures like increasing the age of purchase and use from the current 18 years to 21 years in the country backed with current tobacco control efforts and adopting vendor licensing will significantly reduce future tobacco burden. We analysed the two rounds of nationally representative Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) data: GATS-1 (2009-10) and GATS-2 (2016-17) and segregated the data for two categories of tobacco consumption (smokers and smokeless tobacco users) based on the age of initiation (<18, 18-21 and >21 years). Consumption patterns were also analyaed by using the GATS-2 data. Projections from sub-national level analysis for youth initiating tobacco use before 21 years and change in the prevalence of overall underage tobacco users were calculated based on weighted value. According to GATS-2, around 89% of current tobacco users initiated tobacco use into daily use before the age of 18 years in Bangladesh. Whereas, striking differences were observed (statistically significant) for the average age of initiation of smoking among smokers aged 20-34 increased from 17.4 in 2009 to 19.3 years; and 20.1 to 22 years for SLT. Moreover, more than 24% of them initiated into regular smoking before the age of 15 years. There is an increasing trends of tobacco initiation among the underage youth of Bangladesh. By increasing the age of access, sale, purchase, and use of tobacco from current 18 years to 21 years will significantly reduce youth initiation and taper down the overall adult tobacco use prevalence over the long run in Bangladesh.

Highlights

Tobacco is perhaps the only consumer product which causes disease and premature death both among its users and simultaneously among the non-users when used exactly as intended
An additional 10.3 million youths (7.6 million smokers and 2.7 million SLT users between the age of 18 to 21 years) could be saved from tobacco addiction if an MLA21 policy had been in place in Bangladesh
The global tobacco industry has intensified marketing in deadly products to the developing world, and Bangladesh is among its easy targets

Summary

Introduction

Tobacco is perhaps the only consumer product which causes disease and premature death both among its users and simultaneously among the non-users when used exactly as intended. In Bangladesh, every one in 14 youth (13-15 years) uses tobacco in some form While this problem is growing in the country, we estimate the underage initiation of tobacco use and present evidence that policy measures like increasing the age of purchase and use from the current 18 years to 21 years in the country backed with current tobacco control efforts and adopting vendor licensing will significantly reduce future tobacco burden. By increasing the age of access, sale, purchase, and use of tobacco from current 18 years to 21 years will significantly reduce youth initiation and taper down the overall adult tobacco use prevalence over the long run in Bangladesh

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Conclusion