Article Text
Abstract
Objectives To explore (1) the social function of shisha cafes for young people living in the UK and (2) other alternative activities (existing or potential) that do not involve tobacco smoking.
Methods We conducted qualitative interviews with young adults (age 18–30) in Leeds, UK. Snowballing sampling was used in selecting the participants. Interviews were audio-recorded and explored the perspectives and experiences of young people in as well as potential alternative activities. Data were transcribed and analysed thematically.
Results Shisha use plays a central role in social interactions. Youth described using shisha because of emotional and sensory pleasure. Shisha use was implicitly endorsed by respected professionals, such as doctors and university lecturers, who were seen smoking it. Most, but not all, shisha smokers acknowledged that shisha use is harmful. Suggestions for reducing shisha use included use of non- tobacco alternatives, legislation to reduce access and alternative means for socialising, such as sports.
Conclusion For young people in the UK, the known health dangers of shisha are outweighed by its social benefits and shisha is perceived as acceptable. Interventions to reverse the increase in shisha cafes should focus on both individual smoker as well as the community, without sacrificing the importance of social interactions.
- public health
- qualitative research
- health policy
This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
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Footnotes
Contributors Being the first author, AEKM designed, collected, analysed and interpreted the data. AEKM also drafted the manuscript. JEH provided significant support for analysis and manuscript preparation. IO supervised and guided the first author throughout the whole process of coming up with the paper.
Funding This study was funded by Commonwealth Scholarship.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Ethics approval Research Ethics of the Academic Unit at Leeds Beckett University and the local community centre
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement No additional data available.
Collaborators Ivy O’Neil: Principal Lecturer (Retired), Leeds Beckett University, UK. Email: i.oneil@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
Presented at A version of this paper was submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirement of MSc. Public Health, Health Promotion, Leeds Beckett University, UK, September 2015.