Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education

Introduction

For centuries tobacco has been grown and consumed in Croatia. In the last century the habit of cigarette smoking was highly prevalent and socially accepted. People smoked not only at home, individually or at family gatherings and celebrations but also in pubs and restaurants, at work, meetings, and on social occasions or at media events. Smoking was considered a sign of adulthood, as illustrated by the popular saying, «I am older, so I can send you to get me a pack of cigarettes».

The results of the first major survey on smoking prevalence in Croatia at the beginning of the 1970s, covering a representative sample of households, showed that 57.6% of the males and 9.9% of the females between the ages of 20 and 64 were smokers (1). According to the basic indicators for the Health Promotion subproject within the First Croatian Health Project in 1997, 34.1% of Croatia’s males and 26.6% of females between the ages of 18 and 65 were daily smokers. The males were «heavier» smokers than females. Of the male smokers 40% reported smoking more than 20 cigarettes a day, outnumbering the 12.5 % of female smokers who had the same habit (2). The respondents claimed they started smoking between the ages of 16 and 20, in contrast with the results of the international study European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), showing the current shift towards younger age groups in starting the habit.