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Perceptions of Waterpipe Smoking among Young Adults: A Phenomenological Study

Background: Waterpipe tobacco smoking is becoming increasingly popular in the West among young people. Given the associated health risks of this behaviour, we aimed to investigate why young adults take up waterpipe tobacco smoking and their attitudes to the associated risks. Methods: This was a qual...

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Autores principales: Dhillon, Amraj. Z., Doran, Tim, Aggarwal, Vishal. R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7763057/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321834
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/dj8040134
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author Dhillon, Amraj. Z.
Doran, Tim
Aggarwal, Vishal. R.
author_facet Dhillon, Amraj. Z.
Doran, Tim
Aggarwal, Vishal. R.
author_sort Dhillon, Amraj. Z.
collection PubMed
description Background: Waterpipe tobacco smoking is becoming increasingly popular in the West among young people. Given the associated health risks of this behaviour, we aimed to investigate why young adults take up waterpipe tobacco smoking and their attitudes to the associated risks. Methods: This was a qualitative study, with a phenomenological perspective. Focus groups and face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted among waterpipe smokers aged 20–30 years living in London, UK. Transcripts were analysed using constant comparison and cycling between the data and analysis. Data collection continued until thematic saturation was achieved. Results: Sixteen smokers attended focus groups and face-to-face interviews. Seven main themes emerged encompassing four main dimensions relating to: lack of knowledge, perceived risk, affordability, and social addiction. Waterpipe was perceived to be safer than cigarette smoking due to the pleasant odour, fruity flavours, and belief that water filtered the toxins. The waterpipe had become a “social addiction” enhancing group atmosphere, was cheap and did not have the dangers of violence or hallucinations associated with other addictions like alcohol and drugs. Because of their intermittent smoking patterns and the lack of statutory warnings, none felt they were not at risk of any adverse side effects. Conclusions: Waterpipe smoking is a growing public health problem; the social environment associated with its use is perceived to be a positive outlet by smokers who do not consider it harmful to their health. These perceptions need to be addressed urgently by anti-smoking policies.
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spelling pubmed-77630572020-12-27 Perceptions of Waterpipe Smoking among Young Adults: A Phenomenological Study Dhillon, Amraj. Z. Doran, Tim Aggarwal, Vishal. R. Dent J (Basel) Article Background: Waterpipe tobacco smoking is becoming increasingly popular in the West among young people. Given the associated health risks of this behaviour, we aimed to investigate why young adults take up waterpipe tobacco smoking and their attitudes to the associated risks. Methods: This was a qualitative study, with a phenomenological perspective. Focus groups and face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted among waterpipe smokers aged 20–30 years living in London, UK. Transcripts were analysed using constant comparison and cycling between the data and analysis. Data collection continued until thematic saturation was achieved. Results: Sixteen smokers attended focus groups and face-to-face interviews. Seven main themes emerged encompassing four main dimensions relating to: lack of knowledge, perceived risk, affordability, and social addiction. Waterpipe was perceived to be safer than cigarette smoking due to the pleasant odour, fruity flavours, and belief that water filtered the toxins. The waterpipe had become a “social addiction” enhancing group atmosphere, was cheap and did not have the dangers of violence or hallucinations associated with other addictions like alcohol and drugs. Because of their intermittent smoking patterns and the lack of statutory warnings, none felt they were not at risk of any adverse side effects. Conclusions: Waterpipe smoking is a growing public health problem; the social environment associated with its use is perceived to be a positive outlet by smokers who do not consider it harmful to their health. These perceptions need to be addressed urgently by anti-smoking policies. MDPI 2020-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7763057/ /pubmed/33321834 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/dj8040134 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Dhillon, Amraj. Z.
Doran, Tim
Aggarwal, Vishal. R.
Perceptions of Waterpipe Smoking among Young Adults: A Phenomenological Study
title Perceptions of Waterpipe Smoking among Young Adults: A Phenomenological Study
title_full Perceptions of Waterpipe Smoking among Young Adults: A Phenomenological Study
title_fullStr Perceptions of Waterpipe Smoking among Young Adults: A Phenomenological Study
title_full_unstemmed Perceptions of Waterpipe Smoking among Young Adults: A Phenomenological Study
title_short Perceptions of Waterpipe Smoking among Young Adults: A Phenomenological Study
title_sort perceptions of waterpipe smoking among young adults: a phenomenological study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7763057/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33321834
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/dj8040134
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