Water Pipe Smoking Among Young Arabic High School Girls

Abstract

Water pipe smoking (Aka, Shisha, Narghille, Hookah) has become a trendy pursuit among young people today, mainly in the Middle East. Many of them believe that water pipe smoking is less harmful than smoking cigarettes. PURPOSE: To examine the reasons for water pipe smoking, the awareness of its negative health effects, and to examine whether smoking is an inter-generational phenomenon. METHODS: An anonymous survey questionnaire was filled by 103 young (16-18 yrs) Arabic high school girls who live in Israel. Chi-squared test was used to determine the independent variables that influence smoking water pipe. The Binomial test was performed to test the distribution significance between the two groups: smokers and non-smokers water pipe. Data analysis was done by SPSS. RESULTS: Out of 103 girls, 47 (45.6%) were water pipe smokers. Among 61.3% of the smokers at least one parent smokes compared to 3.6% for the non-smokers group. Among 79% of the smokers at least one parent knows that his/her daughter smokes. 58% of the smokers smoke because of peer pressure and 42% of them smoke a jester of maturation, authoritative and power. 81% of the smokers are aware of the negative health effects of water pipe smoking, and 75% would quit if they would see research, which shows a connection between smoking and cancer. 58% of the girls’ parents don’t see a difference between water pipe smoking and cigarette smoking. Finally, 86% of the girls claim their primary doctors don’t have any influence on them regarding smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Water pipe smoking among young Arabic girls is an inter-generational phenomenon, where most Arabic parents know that their daughters smoke. The girls, as well as their parents, aren’t aware of all the health risks involved with water pipe smoking. Direct education regarding the health hazards of water pipe smoking can be more influential to quit smoking than talking with the girls’ primary care physician.