There are many factors that contribute to underage and youth smoking. The glamourising of smoking cigarettes, peer pressure and experimentation are at the top of the list.
Across the continent legislation is in place to govern public use of tobacco in Africa. The most commonly used forms of tobacco include waterpipe tobacco, various smokeless tobacco products, cigars, cigarillos, roll-your-own tobacco, pipe tobacco and bidis.
Nipping tobacco use in the bud by preventing the underage youth from taking up the habit is critical in reducing tobacco use.
This is why Joyce Nakitende, a Master of Public Health student at Makerere University, wants to find some answers.
Nakitende plans to uncover the motivators towards persistent tobacco use among the young people who live in a large slum in Kampala, Uganda. Slums have been reported to have exceptionally high tobacco consumption rates.
But there is little data which unpacks the stats and the factors that encourage young people to smoke in these areas. Several studies in Uganda have reported data on prevalence of tobacco use and associated factors . These have been used to enforce laws against tobacco use among the high risk groups in Uganda.
However, data from the global youth tobacco survey reports no decline in tobacco use despite implementation of public health measures. In fact according to the data from the same survey, the prevalence of tobacco use among the youth (boys) was twice as much(19.3%) that reported among the adult males. Findings from several studies suggest that high levels of unemployment and poverty are the most pressing issues among the young who live in slum areas. But these are general issues but rather not specific to use of tobacco.
Nakitende’s research will take the shape of a community based qualitative study. It will be carried out in the slum areas of Uganda’s capital Kampala, and will include kisenyi, Katanga, Katwe. The respondents will be young people between the ages of 18 and 30 currently using tobacco and living in the selected slum areas of Kampala.
The findings, it is hoped will inform the Uganda’s tobacco control policy about which areas need more emphasis for interventions towards control and ending the use of tobacco in the country.