Colombia''s Tobacco Consumption Down

Source from:  Colombia Reports  07/23/2014

A United Nations (UN) study has shown that tobacco consumption was reduced in the last five years, local news reported last week.

More than 30,000 Colombians between the ages of 12 and 65 took part in the 2013 National Study of the Consumption of Psychoactive Substances in Colombia, which was co-sponsored by the United Nations (UN), the Organization of American States (OAS), and the United States Embassy in Colombia.

Tobacco use is the substance most widely consumed in Colombia, the report concluded. It highlighted that while tobacco consumption in Colombia across all categories of study has decreased between 2008 and 2013.

Tobacco consumption is on the downturn in Colombia, thanks to fewer new smokers each year, the study concluded. However, the study still estimates that around 3 million people still consume cigarettes.

The study concluded that among the three indicators of tobacco use, use within a lifespan, within the last year, and within the last month, all witnessed a significant decrease.

In 2008, participants who said they had used tobacco in the their lifetime were 45.5%, dropping to 42.1% in 2013.

Those who had used tobacco in the past year were 21.6% in 2008, and dropped significantly to 16.2% in 2013.

The numbers for users in the past month was at 17.3% in 2008, and dropped more than 4% to 13.0% in 2013.

The report also presented the proportion and number of new cases of tobacco use initiated in the year preceding the 2008 and 2013 studies.

In this regard, the study took into account that in the year prior to the 2008 study, around 540 thousand people reported that they had smoked tobacco for the first time during that period. In the year before the 2013 study, that number had reduced itself almost 50%.

This reflects that the downturn in tobacco use in Colombia is also reflected in the smaller number of new smokers during the study period, the report indicated.

Significant decreases in tobacco use are seen amongst women smokers, male smokers, social strata, and in all of the age group categories studied except for the 12-17 year-old group.

When comparing the figures regionally, in 13 of the 27 states a significant reduction in tobacco use was observed according to the study. Enditem