[hepr-vn] Tobacco Farming in Rural Vietnam: Questionable Economic Gain but Evident, Health Risks

[Vern Weitzel]

Subject: for health VN and other lists
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:49:28 +1100
From: Peter Higgs <phiggs at nchecr.unsw.edu.au>

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-9-24.pdf

Research article


Tobacco Farming in Rural Vietnam: Questionable Economic Gain but Evident
Health Risks


Hoang VAN Minh  <http://www.biomedcentral.com/logon/logon.asp?msg=ce> email,
Kim BAO Giang  <http://www.biomedcentral.com/logon/logon.asp?msg=ce> email,
Nguyen NGOC Bich  <http://www.biomedcentral.com/logon/logon.asp?msg=ce>
email   and Nguyen THANH Huong
<http://www.biomedcentral.com/logon/logon.asp?msg=ce> email

BMC Public Health 2009, 9:24doi:10.1186/1471-2458-9-24





Published:

20 January 2009


Abstract


Background


In order to provide evidence on health impacts of the tobacco industry on
cultivators in Vietnam, this study aims to provide a comparison between
tobacco cultivation related revenue and expenditure in selected areas in
rural Vietnam and examine the relationship between tobacco cultivation and
self-reported illness in the study population.


Methods


Two tobacco farming communes and 2 non-tobacco farming communes were
selected for this study. In each selected commune, 120 households were
sampled using two-stage cluster sampling technique. Local health workers
were recruited and trained to conduct household interviews using structured
questionnaire.


Results


Where the expenditure figures do not include personnel costs (as the farming
work was almost always the responsibility of the family members themselves),
it appeared that the average tobacco farmer did benefit financially from
tobacco cultivation. However, if a personal opportunity cost was added to
give a financial value to their labour, the profit from tobacco cultivation
was seen to be minimal. The occurrences of 9 out of the 16 health problems
were statistically significantly higher among tobacco growing farmers
compared to that among non-tobacco farmers. Tobacco farming was shown to be
the second strong predictor of self-reported health problems among the
farmers (after the effect of old age).


Conclusion


The present study provides evidence that can be used to increase public
awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco growing.



The complete article is available as a provisional
<http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-9-24.pdf>  PDF. The
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