Urgent action is needed to tackle smoking in armed forces
http://www.100md.com
《英国医生杂志》
Abergavenny
The high percentage of UK military personnel who smoke warrants urgent action, concludes a new study, which shows that the smoking rates increased even further while troops were deployed in Iraq.
The study, which was based on a survey of some 600 army staff working in a field hospital in Iraq and is reported in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine ( 2004;97: 20-2), found that some 34% of "regulars" smoked. This percentage considerably exceeds the government's target to reduce the percentage of the whole population that smokes to 26% by 2005.
The study shows that the percentage of smokers increased to 42% after the unit was deployed to Iraq and that only around one in three staff could remember having been given any health education about smoking during their military service.
"The present study suggests that even a medical workforce in the British armed forces has failed to act on scientific knowledge about the adverse effects of smoking. The pre-deployment smoking rate of 34% and the deployment rate of 42% in regular army personnel is high enough to require urgent action," said one of the authors, Major Christopher Boos.
A questionnaire was sent to 623 employees and attached staff in a field hospital on their sixth week of deployment to Iraq during the military action in the Gulf last year. They were asked about smoking habits before and during the deployment and their reasons for smoking.
"In the British Armed Forces, cigarette smoking has not shown the decline seen in the civilian population and is reflected by excess rates of coronary heart disease. For the same reason we can expect military personnel to be at excess risk of other tobacco-related conditions including stroke, peripheral vascular disease and lung cancer," the authors wrote.
Cigarette break: a British soldier in Kuwait
Credit: SIPA/REX
The reasons given for starting to smoke or for smoking more were boredom (54%), perceived social benefits (24%), stress (13%), smoking culture in the army (6%), and the low price of cigarettes locally (3%).
"This study indicates that British military personnel smoke heavily during peacetime, and that smoking rates increase with overseas deployment. The high baseline rate of smoking of this population is of particular concern because it was a medical workforce, which one would expect to show a low or very low rate," say the authors.
The fact that so few staff (29%) could recall ever having been told about the adverse effects of smoking while on military service "is even more surprising," say the authors.
A spokesman for anti-smoking pressure group ASH said, "There is obviously a problem. There is a need to stamp out the sources of cheap cigarettes and ensure they get all necessary health education that is available to the rest of the population."(Roger Dobson)
The high percentage of UK military personnel who smoke warrants urgent action, concludes a new study, which shows that the smoking rates increased even further while troops were deployed in Iraq.
The study, which was based on a survey of some 600 army staff working in a field hospital in Iraq and is reported in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine ( 2004;97: 20-2), found that some 34% of "regulars" smoked. This percentage considerably exceeds the government's target to reduce the percentage of the whole population that smokes to 26% by 2005.
The study shows that the percentage of smokers increased to 42% after the unit was deployed to Iraq and that only around one in three staff could remember having been given any health education about smoking during their military service.
"The present study suggests that even a medical workforce in the British armed forces has failed to act on scientific knowledge about the adverse effects of smoking. The pre-deployment smoking rate of 34% and the deployment rate of 42% in regular army personnel is high enough to require urgent action," said one of the authors, Major Christopher Boos.
A questionnaire was sent to 623 employees and attached staff in a field hospital on their sixth week of deployment to Iraq during the military action in the Gulf last year. They were asked about smoking habits before and during the deployment and their reasons for smoking.
"In the British Armed Forces, cigarette smoking has not shown the decline seen in the civilian population and is reflected by excess rates of coronary heart disease. For the same reason we can expect military personnel to be at excess risk of other tobacco-related conditions including stroke, peripheral vascular disease and lung cancer," the authors wrote.
Cigarette break: a British soldier in Kuwait
Credit: SIPA/REX
The reasons given for starting to smoke or for smoking more were boredom (54%), perceived social benefits (24%), stress (13%), smoking culture in the army (6%), and the low price of cigarettes locally (3%).
"This study indicates that British military personnel smoke heavily during peacetime, and that smoking rates increase with overseas deployment. The high baseline rate of smoking of this population is of particular concern because it was a medical workforce, which one would expect to show a low or very low rate," say the authors.
The fact that so few staff (29%) could recall ever having been told about the adverse effects of smoking while on military service "is even more surprising," say the authors.
A spokesman for anti-smoking pressure group ASH said, "There is obviously a problem. There is a need to stamp out the sources of cheap cigarettes and ensure they get all necessary health education that is available to the rest of the population."(Roger Dobson)