GAT Survey
As part of the 2022 WNTD, Deputy Minister of Health dr. Dante Saksono Harbuwono, Sp.PD, Ph.D, launched the 2021 Global Adult Tobacco (“GAT”) Survey in Jakarta, also on Tuesday (31/05/2022). “The Survey is our second attempt to map smoking habits among our people, since the first one in 2001. The prevalence of smokers in Indonesia has gone down from 1.8% to 1.6%, but the number of smokers itself has increased by 8 million people within the past 10 years, and the number of passive smokers throughout Indonesia has increased to 120 million people,” he said.
GATS 2021 found that 70.2 million (34.5%) of smokers in Indonesia are adults, 65.5% of them men. “Our survey also found that more money is spent on cigarettes than on nutritious food. Indonesian fathers as the head of the family as well as primary breadwinner make the choice of buying cigarettes for themselves instead of groceries for their whole family. The intensity of cigarette ads has also increased, both in digital and electronic media. Internet-based ads skyrocketed from 1.9% in 2011 to a tenfold increase of 23.4% of all internet ads, and they are mostly done through social media. We need to continue to educate everyone of the dangers of smoking. We need to inform children and teens that smoking may look cool, but the consequences are not cool, and we need warn the elderly about health risks, and the implied long-term financial consequences.”
Read: Commemorating World No Tobacco Day, PDPI cautions against danger of smoking
At the same event, the Ministry of Health’s Director General of Public Health, dr. Maria Endang Sumiwi, MPH, reported that 2 out of 3 smokers in Indonesia actually want to quit. “The Government has provided quit smoking services in our Community Clinics and other State health facilities and centers through the Ministry. Even though it’s hard, please begin your effort at quitting now,” she said. (est)