Rizwan Nadim, Sarosh Mahdi, Hoshang Rumi Sukhia.
Reasons for Smoking and Its Socio-cultural Perceptions in a Migrant South Asian Community of Wolverhampton/UK.
J Pak Dent Assoc Jan ;22(3):212-8.

OBJECTIVE: To identify reasons for smoking and its socio-cultural perceptions in a immigrant South East Asian community living in United Kingdom. METHODOLOGY: Thirty two healthy adult smokers were chosen through purposive sampling.The studywas set at Wolverhampton Mosque Trust. Personal interviews were conducted using a structured performaand a phenomenological approach was applied for data collection. Frequency and onset of smoking, knowledge of participants of disease caused by smoking, social, emotional and psychological factors promoting smoking, and how they perceive cultural and social barriers regarding smoking were analysed by using SPSS 13. RESULT: The average age of initiation of smoking was 15 years (SD±4) (table 2),while the most common factors promoting smoking were peer pressure (28%), poor self image (19%) and stress (19%) (Table 3). Cancer (53%) and heart diseases (32%) were the major diseases associated with smoking according to the study participants, while impact of religion (84%) and wide cultural acceptance for smoking (91%) came forward as the most common perceptions regarding quitting or initiating smoking(figure 2). Majority of participants (63%) expressed dissatisfaction with the existing smoking cessation programs. CONCLUSION: Main reasons for initiating smoking were peer pressure, poor self image and stress while religion and cultural acceptance of smoking were most common perceptions.

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