title: Smoking patterns in the coloured population of the Cape Peninsula (CRISIC study).
abstract: A cross-sectional study of tobacco-smoking habits in a random sample of 976 coloured subjects aged 15-64 years revealed that smoking was common, 57% of men and 41% of women being current smokers and 10.4% of men and 9.6% of women having stopped smoking. Heavy smoking prevailed, indicating by mean daily consumption of 14.2 and 13.1 cigarettes among male and female smokers respectively; only 33.5% of male and 39.6% of female smokers used less than 10 cigarettes per day. Coloured smokers smoked more heavily during the weekend. Both men and women smoked mostly filter cigarettes. Forty-four per cent of male and 49.5% of female smokers stated that they had attempted to stop smoking, mainly for health reasons. More than one-third of the participants had a positive attitude to combating smoking, particularly those with an educational level higher than Standard 7. Former smokers and heavy smokers had a significantly higher prevalence of ischaemic heart disease than the other participants. Smoking was associated with a low body mass index, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, low socio-economic standing, high alcohol consumption and type A coronary-prone behaviour in men. In 1982 the economically active coloured population of the Cape Peninsula spent an estimated R36.2 million on cigarettes.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000367:Age Factors; D044383:Black People; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011897:Random Allocation; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013019:South Africa