Tuberc Respir Dis.  1987 Jun;34(2):109-123. 10.4046/trd.1987.34.2.109.

Surveys on the Smoking Habits in Korea -1980 and 1985-

• KMID: 2528654
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4046/trd.1987.34.2.109

Abstract

To investigate the smoking behaviour, questionnaire surveys were carried out in 1980 and 1985 along with the 4th and 5th Nation-wide Tuberculosis Prevalence Surveys. The samplings were done by multistage stratified systematic method. More than 15 years of age were the subjects of surveys, 94.7% of eligibles (16,471) and 99.4% of eligibles (29,368) in 1980 and 1985, respectively, were interviewed. The percentages of smoking have decreased from 69.6% of 1980 to 61.5% in 1985 in male, and from 11.0% of 1980 to 6.8% in 1985 in female. There were more smokers in both sexes in rural areas than those in urban area in the age groups of 40 years or more. The rates of smoking were high in miners, fanners, fishennen and transportation workers and low in professional and technical workers. The males started to smoke at an earlier age than did the famales: while 89.1% of male smokers started to smoke before the age of 30, 76.1 % of female smokers started to smoke at age of 30 years or more. The average number of cigarettes smoked daily was increased from 14.38 of 1980 to 17.09 in 1985. 33 4% of current smokers, 28.6% of ex-smokers and 14.3% non-smokers complained of respiratory symptoms e.g. cough with sputum and/or shortness of breath, etc. The respiratory symptoms were closely associated with the number of cigarettes smoked per day and smoking duration. The prevalence of radiological tuberculosis and bacteriological tuberculosis among ex-smoker and current smokers were 4.24% and 1.15% respectively.