Fourteen per cent of youths and more than 20 per cent of adults in the UAE smoke, a World Health Organisation report says.
The figures were higher for males only – 21.3 per cent of youths aged between 13 and 15 used tobacco, and 28.1 per cent of men.
Compared with overall tobacco use, 9.8 per cent of youths smoked cigarettes only, compared with 12.8 per cent of adults.
Medwakh is the second most common form of tobacco used by Emiratis, a 2012 study found.
Average use of medwakh among those smokers was 12 times a day, or about six grams of dokha, said the report by researchers from UAE University, the University of Oxford, and the Health Authority – Abu Dhabi.
Medwakh users also tended to be younger and started smoking at an earlier age than those who smoked other types of tobacco.
A week’s supply of dokha was also found to be less expensive than a week’s supply of cigarettes, at Dh11 compared with Dh77.
* Lindsay Carroll
