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Smoking among schoolchildren reaches alarming levels in UAE

DUBAI — Smoking or tobacco use among schoolchildren in the UAE starts at an early age, while risk-taking behaviour of the youth have also reached alarming levels, according to the recently released Global School Health Survey (GSHS).

The survey results were presented at the 8th two-day AGCC School Health meeting held in Dubai yesterday.

According to the survey carried out in the UAE betweeen March 19, 2005 to April 30, 2005, and released earlier this year, "During the past 30 days, 9.3 per cent of students smoked cigarettes and 10.7 per cent used another form of tobacco on one or more days. Boys were found to be significantly more likely than girl students to smoke or use tobacco in any form."

Giving details, Dr Nasim Mohammed Ibrahim, Director, Primary Healthcare Care (PHC) Department at Ministry of Health office in Sharjah, said, "During the past 12 months, 31.9 per cent of the students were physically attacked on more than one occasion. Overall, 43.2 per cent of the students were in a physical fight during the past 12 months while 20.8 per cent were bullied on one or more days during the past 30 days."

She also said that 33.6 per cent of students surveyed were either overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. More alarming is that 38.8 per cent of the students spent three or more hours per day doing sitting activities during a typical or usual day. During the past seven days, only 19.5 per cent of the students were physically active daily for a total of at least 60 minutes per day.

A total of 15,790 students from 200 schools from four regions of the UAE responded to the questionnaire. Sixty-seven per cent of the students were in the age group of 13-15 years (Grades 7-10), while 89 per cent of those surveyed completed the questionnaire.