Hookah Smoking More Popular Than Expected Among College Students
PITTSBURGH, September 4, 2008 — More than 40 percent of college students at a large university have smoked tobacco from a waterpipe, or hookah, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study available online now in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. The study represents the first random sample of United States university students to address waterpipe smoking.
“Our study showed that over one-third of those who used waterpipes to smoke tobacco over the past year had never smoked a cigarette,” said Brian Primack, M.D., Ed.M., assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Pitt’s School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “Clearly young people believe hookah smoking is somehow different than smoking cigarettes, but waterpipe smoke has many of the same chemicals as cigarette smoke and likely poses many of the same health risks.”
A waterpipe is used to inhale tobacco that usually is flavored and sweetened. The opening of more than 200 waterpipe cafés in the U.S. over the past decade demonstrates the popularity of waterpipe smoking. Although the aesthetic appeal of the practice suggests to many users that it is not harmful, studies show that waterpipe tobacco smoke contains many of the same toxins as cigarettes and has been associated with substantial harm and addictiveness.
Researchers received survey responses from 647 undergraduate and graduate students from a large U.S. university. Just over 40 percent of respondents reported having ever smoked tobacco from a waterpipe, slightly higher than the 39.6 percent who said they had smoked cigarettes. In addition, the study found that 30.5 percent had smoked tobacco from a hookah in the past year and that 9.5 percent had done so in the past 30 days. The results are worrisome because hookah smoking engaged many young students in tobacco use who would otherwise have been tobacco free, noted Dr. Primack.
“We were surprised that the percentage of students who reported ever engaging in waterpipe smoking was actually higher than the percentage of those who have ever smoked cigarettes,” said Dr. Primack. “Waterpipe smoking may become even more popular in the near future since many of the new smoke-free ordinances being passed by local governments exempt waterpipe cafes. Waterpipe smoking is going to be a crucial public-health issue that will require increased surveillance and study.”
Co-authors of the study are J. Sidani, A.A. Agarwal and E.C. Donny of the University of Pittsburgh, T.E. Eissenberg of Virginia Commonwealth University and W.G. Shadel from the RAND Corporation.
Dr. Primack was supported with funding from the National Cancer Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Maurice Falk Foundation.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is one of the nation’s leading medical schools, renowned for its curriculum that emphasizes both the science and humanity of medicine and its remarkable growth in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant support, which has more than doubled since 1998. For fiscal year 2006, the university ranked sixth out of more than 3,000 entities receiving NIH support with respect to the research grants awarded to its faculty. The majority of these grants were awarded to the faculty of the medical school. As one of the university’s six Schools of the Health Sciences, the School of Medicine is the academic partner to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Their combined mission is to train tomorrow’s health care specialists and biomedical scientists, engage in groundbreaking research that will advance understanding of the causes and treatments of disease and participate in the delivery of outstanding patient care.