Citation

de Silva VA, Jayasekera NE, Hanwella R. Subst. Abuse Treat. Prev. Policy 2012; 7(1): 27.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/1747-597X-7-27

PMID

22776004

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Among military personnel alcohol consumption and binge-drinking have increased but cigarette smoking has declined in the recent past. Although there is a strong association between smoking and PTSD the association between combat exposure and smoking is not clear. METHODS: This cross sectional study was carried out among representative samples of SLN Special Forces and regular forces deployed in combat areas. Both Special Forces and regular forces were selected using simple random sampling. Only personnel who had served continuously in combat areas during the one year period prior to end of combat operations were included in the study. Females were not included in the sample. The study assessed several mental health outcomes. Sample was classified according to smoking habits as never smokers, past smokers (those who had smoked in the past but not within the past year) and current smokers (those smoking at least one cigarette within the past 12 months). RESULTS: Sample consisted of 259 Special Forces and 412 regular navy personnel. Prevalence of current smoking was 17.9% (95% CI 14.9-20.8). Of the sample 58.4% had never smoked and 23.7% were past smokers. Prevalence of current smoking was significantly higher among Special Forces personnel compared to regular forces. (OR 1.90 (95% CI 1.20-3.02). Personnel aged [greater than or equal to]35 years had the lowest prevalence of smoking (14.0%). Commissioned officers had a lower prevalence (12.1%) than non commissioned officers or other ranks. After adjustment for demographic variables and service type there was significant association between smoking and combat experiences of seeing dead or wounded [OR 1.79 (95%CI 1.08-2.9)], handling dead bodies [OR 2.47(95%CI 1.6-3.81)], coming under small arms fire [OR 2.01(95%CI 1.28-3.15)] and coming under mortar, missile and artillery fire [OR 2.02(95%CI 1.29-3.17)]. There was significant association between the number of risk events and current smoking [OR 1.22 (95%CI1.11-1.35)]. CONCLUSIONS: Similar to studies conducted among military personnel in US and UK we found that the prevalence of smoking was low among Navy personnel in Sri Lanka. We found an association between smoking and exposure to combat events and this should be explored further. Cumulative exposure to trauma may increase the risk of smoking.

Language: en