Many Hong Kong women take to cigarettes because of stress, according to a story in The Standard, quoting the Council on Smoking and Health.
And 60 percent of them don’t even think about quitting.
According to government census figures, there were at least 96,800 women smokers in 2012, compared with 56,100 in 1990.
And according to the government’s Thematic Household Survey Report, about 60 percent of female smokers had never tried to quit.
In a two-part study, the council and the University of Hong Kong looked into the cases of 73 female smokers in 2010 and surveyed 3,306 more women who were smoked, had quit or had not started in 2011–2012.
Researchers said the first part of the survey indicated that stress and moods were among the main reasons why women started and continued smoking.
In the second part, 45 percent of 1,274 current and former smokers said they started to smoke because of curiosity and 37 percent blamed peer influence.
William Li Ho-cheung, assistant professor at the HKU School of Nursing, said about 15 percent took up smoking due to emotional reasons that included feeling sad or bored (7.5 percent), being under pressure (4.9 percent) and needing to control negative emotions (2.2 percent).
Council chairwoman Lisa Lau Man-man said there should be increased resources for smoking cessation services and more emotional support for female smokers.