Tobacco and Public Health - TCSC Indonesia

since the late 1980s. In 2001, Philip Morris reached an agreement with the Chinese
government-run tobacco company to manufacture Marlboro and other PM brands
in China (Shenon 1984).
In the background, the prevalence of tobacco use was quickly increasing, and the
hazards of tobacco use were starting to appear.
Prevalence of tobacco use
YANG HONGHUAN 217
General picture
There was no national picture on tobacco-use behavior before the 1984’ national survey.
The World Health Organization estimated annual per capita consumption of cigarettes
per Chinese adult 15 years of age and above to be 730 in 1970–72, 1290 in 1980–82,
and 1900 in 1990–92 (WHO).
In 1984 the first national survey on the prevalence of tobacco use was carried out by
the National Patriotic Health Campaign Committee, which covered all 29 provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities. 519 600 persons (258 422 males and 261 178
females) aged 15 years and above surveyed by stratified random sampling. The average
smoking rate among Chinese was 34.45 per cent, with 61.01 per cent for males and
7.04 per cent for females (Weng 1987). The average number of cigarettes was 13 per
day for males and 11 per day for females. The 1996 national prevalence survey on
smoking behavior was conducted in all urban and rural areas of the Mainland China.
The total sample size was 130 657 by three-stage probability sample. Of the originally
sampled population of 128 766, a total of 120 783 (93.8%) persons provided complete
data and were included in the final analysis. There were 63 793 male and 56 020 female
participants (with 485 not identifying gender), of whom two-thirds came from rural
and one-third from urban areas. The indicators for smoking rates were based on the
WHO classification of smoking definitions: ever smokers included persons who had
ever smoked for at least 6 months during their lives; current smokers were smoking
tobacco products at the time of the survey; regular smokers were persons smoking at
least one cigarette daily; and heavy smokers at the time of the survey smoked at least
20 cigarettes daily (World Health Organization 1983). Passive smoke exposure was
defined as being exposed to another person while he or she is smoking for at least
15 minutes daily for more than 1 day per week. Overall smoking rates were calculated
using a pre-weighting method and with age-standardization to the 1990 national census
(Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine 1996).
In the 1996 survey, overall prevalence rates for smokers were 66.9% for males
and 4.2% for females, with an overall prevalence of 37.6% among China’s population
older than 15 years of age. Most smokers started smoking at the age of 20, three years
younger than what was found in the 1984 national survey. Daily per capita consumption
in 1996 was 15 cigarettes, two cigarettes more per day than in 1984. The age
of starting to smoke increased with age in both men and women. Compared to 1984,