Smoking and inadequate housing: Results from an Australian national survey

Abstract

To examine the effect of: (a) the smoking status of the household; and (b) the amount spent on smoking by the household on inadequate housing. This was a cross-sectional study using data from the first wave of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. A total of 7673 households were eligible for analysis. The outcome, inadequate housing, was derived from a questionnaire item asking respondents about the adequacy of their housing with respect to their housing needs in general. A house was defined as a smoking household if at least one member smoked. Amongst smoking households, the total amount spent on smoking per week was calculated. Other factors included in the analyses were education, occupation and age of the head of the household, household size, household disposable income and housing tenure. There was evidence for an unadjusted association between being a smoking household and having inadequate housing [odds ratio (OR) 1.64, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.32-2.03, P<0.001]; however, after adjusting for indicators of socio-economic status and age, evidence for the association became much weaker (OR 1.15, 95% CI 0.90-1.47, P=0.262). For smoking households, there was little evidence for an association between inadequate housing and the amount spent on smoking by the household, either unadjusted or adjusted. It appears that antismoking policies will not enhance housing adequacy, which is predominantly affected by indicators of socio-economic status.