GATS Identifies 23 Percent of Malaysians Smoke

Source from:  New Sabah Times 10/09/2013

The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) has identified that 23.1 per cent of Malaysians are smokers with nearly half (43.9 per cent) being male.

Of this, 20.9 per cent of Malaysians smoked tobacco daily (4.3 million persons), a staggering number considering smokers often smoke at young age and their addiction can be lifelong with numerous health consequences.

At present, it is estimated that 10,000 lives are lost yearly due to tobacco smoking each year, said Dr D. Kamarudin D. Mudin, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Dean of School of Medicine in his welcoming remarks and launching of the "Sabah Tobacco Control Symposium 2013: Introduction & Updates" at UMS yesterday.

In response to this danger, he said Malaysia through the Ministry of Health has provided nearly 300 quit clinics throughout the country where treatment are subsidized to those who seek treatment in the clinic.

Besides that, he said dentists have also been recognised to provide smoking cessation treatment to smokers.

He said research also found that those with mental illness tend to smoke more and are highly addicted to nicotine than the general population who smoke.

He said the symposium attempts to highlight and provide solutions to help those with mental illness to quit smoking through scientific content on both tobacco prevention and cessation.

The symposium hoped to provide the necessary skills, knowledge and confidence to assist healthcare providers in tobacco control to assist Malaysians to quit smoking for the benefit of everybody, he said.

Dr Amer Siddip Amer Nordin in his presentation entitled "Tobacco Use Disorder: The Science Revisited & the New DSM 5" found that nicotine is the psychoactive drug in tobacco products that produces dependence.

"Most smokers are dependent on nicotine and research suggests that nicotine may be as addictive as heroin, cocaine, or alcohol," said Dr Amer who is a senior lecturer attached to the Department of Psychological Medicine, University Malaya.

Associate Professor Dr Christopher Bullen in his paper entitled "Pharmacological Treatments-Current and Emerging" said: "The only way for people to reduce harm from tobacco use is to stop using tobacco."

"The more people who quit, the greater the fall in tobacco-use prevalence in the population and the more harm averted," said Dr Christopher who is the Director of the National Institute of Health Innovations.

"To help more people quit, we need individual and population approaches and supportive system," said Dr Christopher who is also the co-director of the Turanga Tobacco Research Group in the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

The symposium was co-organised by the University Malaya Centre on Addiction Sciences (UMCAS), UMS and Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kota Kinabalu. Enditem