The profile of the African smoker: the Ghana smoking studies.

PIP: The prevalence of cigarette smoking in Ghana was assessed by examining the data on smoking from 2 World Health Organization sponsored studies of blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. The 2 studies were the Civil Servants Hypertension Project, which surveyed a sample of approximately 20% of all civil servants and included 486 male and 202 female respondents, and the Mamprobi Survey, which sampled the general population and included 3745 respondents, aged 14-64 years. Additional data from 2 other studies was also examined. Overall, the studies found that the proportion of smokers in Ghana was small and that most of those who smoked were not heavy smokers. The smoking prevalence rate among civil servants was 32% for males and 5.9% for females. Among the respondents in the Mamprobi Survey, the respective rates were 24% and 0.8%. For those aged 15-19 years, the prevalence rates in the 2 studies ranged from 4.6%-7.8% for males and was 0.0% for females. In another recent study of 2493 respondents from the general population, the proportion of smokers was only 15.1%. The proportion of smokers was similar among those who earned low and high salaries. In the Civil Servants Study the mean number of cigaretters smoked/day among the civil servants was 7 for the males and 4.7 for the females. In the Mamprobi Survey, the respective mean numbers were 8.4 and 3.0. Among civil servants, professional and administratie personnel smoked an average of 12 cigarettes/day while lower salaried workers smoked an average of 7 cigarettes/day. Only 3.7% of all the smokers in the 2 studies combined smoked 20 or more cigarettes/day. All of the studies indicate that 97%-99% of those who smoked/used cigarettes. Among civil servants, 91% of the smokers and 60% of the nonsmokers used alcohol. The studies indicate that the typical smoker in Ghana is an urban male, between 20-29 years of age, who began smoking as an adolescent. He is just as likely to belong to a high income group as a low income group; however, if he belongs to the former group, he is more likely to smoke more than the average number of cigarettes/day. Available information on smoking should be used to launch a public health campaign to reduce smoking in Ghana. At the present time, only a minority of the population smokes, few individuals are heavy smokers, and teachers and educators are showing considerable interest in combating smoking. Currently, educated and professional groups have a relatively high proportion of smokers. If these groups can be motivated to stop smoking, they might serve as effective role models for other segments of the population. Factors which may increase the smoking problem in Ghana are the growing number of young people who smoke and the ambivalence of the government toward smoking. Voluntary organizations and health professionals should assume more active roles in educating the public about the hazards of smoking.^ieng