The prevalence and trends of waterpipe tobacco smoking: A systematic review.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Waterpipe tobacco smoking is harmful to health however its prevalence estimates remain uncertain. We aimed to systematically review the medical literature on waterpipe tobacco prevalence and trends.

Methods

We searched Medline, Embase and ISI Web of Science for 'waterpipe' and its synonyms, without using language or date restrictions. We included any measure of waterpipe tobacco smoking prevalence in jurisdictionally representative populations. We stratified findings by prevalence measure (past 30 day, ever, regular or occasional, daily, other or unspecified) and age (adults or youth).

Results

We included 129 studies reporting 355 estimates for 68 countries. In general, prevalence estimates among adults were highest in the Eastern Mediterranean, and among

SUBMITTER: Jawad M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5806869 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature