Jordan: Mass Media Cmapaign Combating Smoking Requires Serious Commitment and Not Just Words

Jordan: Mass Media Campaign Combating Smoking Requires Serious Commitment and Not Just Words Introduction Tobacco use is a growing problem in Jordan, a developing country with a population of 5.3 million (1). Each year, cardiovascular diseases are responsible for about 42% of all deaths in Jordan and cancer is responsible for 13% (2). Smoking has been found to be the main factor contribut-ing to these health problems. In 2000, Jordan’s National Cancer Registry recorded an average of 3 360 new cancer cases. Lung cancer was the most prevalent type, with 223 cases. Of these cases, 185 lung cancer patients were smokers. Smoking is highly prevalent among adolescents. Jordan’s Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) conducted in 1999 showed that 19.3 % of students between the ages of 13 and 15 (25% of male students and 14.5 % of female stu-dents) are smokers. This is primarily due to their imitating adults, peer pressure and easy access to cigarettes. This is a high percentage in a country where half of the popula-tion is under the age of 18 (1). Another study on morbidity, conducted in 1996, revealed that the prevalence of smoking among Jordanian adults over 25 years was 26.9% (4). Almost 48% of males and 10.2% of females smoked daily . However, only 9.7% of the adult population was able to quit. National figures reveal that smokers in the Kingdom spend an estimated JD 250 million1 (2) annually on tobacco products, or some 4% of the country’s national gross domestic product. Smoking the water pipe or Argileh is also becoming a very popular practice in tobacco use.