Page 106 - TAIWAN TOBACCO CONTROL ANNUAL REPORT 2019

Daily smoking rate With respect to the proportion of people aged 18 years or more using tobacco on a daily basis, daily smoking rate dropped from 18.9% in 2008 to 11.5% in 2018. This was a near 39.0% decrease compared to the rate of 2008. Daily smoking rate is highest (15.9%) for those from 40 to 49 years of age. When compared to the data of 2008, the greatest decreases were observed for those from 18 to 29 years of age which dropped from 16.6% to 6.6% (60% reduction) and those above 65 years of age which dropped from 14.3% to 6.8% (50% reduction). After compiling smoking behavior results, it is evident that the smoking rate of local citizens aged 15 or above was 14.7% in 2015 (male smoking rate of 25.7%). The female smoking rate reached 3.6%, which is the ninth highest percentage among the 30 compared countries. However, smoking rates among men was still very high, placing Taiwan at the 18th place for lowest smoking rates and higher than many developed countries. These data showed that tobacco controls can still be improved in Taiwan. (Fig. 3-4) Fig. 3-4 Distribution of smoking percentages in different countries Male Female 9.0 11.9 13.0 15 16. 17.0 17.2 21 21 22.8 23.5 25.1 25.7 27.6 31 31. 31.5 32.3 33.5 34. 35.8 38.7 38.8 41.4 44.5 44.8 50 40 30 20 10 0 Sweden (2015) Mexico (2015) Norway (2015) New Zealand (2015-16) Denmark (2015) Netherlands (2014) Finland (2014) Austria (2015) Iran (2011) Switzerland (2014) Ireland (2014-15) Pakistan (2014) Belgium (2013) Czechia (2015) Italy (2015) Portuga l(2014) Germany (2013) Taiwan (2015) Spain (2014) Poland (2014-15) Estonia (2014) Hungary (2014) France (2014) Greece (2014) Rumania (2011) Thailand (2014) Vietnam (2015) Malasiya (2015) Turkey (2016) Egypt (2015) China (2015) 11.0 13.0 12.9 17.3 17.0 14.0 15.8 15.1 17.3 16.4 14.8 14.9 10.9 17.1 3.6 18.6 Taiwan Ranking Male (18/31) Female (9/31) 104 Note: 1. Data source of different countries is the WHO Report on The Global Tobacco Epidemic 2017, and the smoking rate is based on the daily smoking rate of people above the age of 15. 2. Information for Taiwan: a. Source: Smoking-related information of the general public collected via telephone interviews conducted by the HPA for the "Adult Smoking Behavior Survey". b. Questionnaire item: "Have you smoked more than 5 packs of cigarettes (about 100 sticks) by this time?", "Do you still smoke every day, occasionally, or none at all?" If the respondents gave the answer of "I don't know/ not sure","others", or"refused to answer", they will be considered missing data. c. Values were based upon the Taiwan region household census of 2000 carried out by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS). Weight adjustments were carried out according to gender, age, education background, and characteristics of the area of residence. d. To facilitate comparison with other countries, the 2015 survey result data was employed for Taiwan.In 2013, the daily smoking rate of people above the age of 15 was 15.2% (male 28.1%, female 2.2%); in 2014, the daily smoking rate of people above the age of 15 was 13.9% (male 24.9%, female 3.2%); in 2016, the daily smoking rate of people above the age of 15 was 14.3% (male 25.1%, female 3.4%), in 2017, the daily smoking rate of people above the age of 15 was 12.5% (male 23.3%, female 1.4%)%), in 2018, the daily smoking rate of people above the age of 15 was 11.5% (male 20.7%, female 2.0%). 0.6 2.0 1.8 0.9 1.1 0.1 2.0 18.0 15.8 20.8 24.3 21.6 14.5 16.3 3.6 9 .0 4 20.6 .6 .8 18.9 19.2 19.6 19.9 .6 0 0 10 20 30 40 50