Abstract
IntroductionTobacco smoking is a leading cause of premature death and disability, and over 80% of the world's smokers live in low- or middle-income countries. The objective of this study is to assess demographic and socioeconomic determinants of current smoking in low- and middle-income countries.MethodsWe used data, from the World Health Survey in 48 low-income and middle-income countries, to explore the impact of demographic and socioeconomic factors on the current smoking status of respondents. The data from these surveys provided information on 213,807 respondents aged 18 years or above that were divided into 4 pooled datasets according to their sex and country income group. The overall proportion of current smokers, as well as the proportion by each relevant demographic and socioeconomic determinant, was calculated within each of the pooled datasets, and multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between current smoking and these determinants.ResultsThe odds of smoking were not equal in all demographic or socioeconomic groups. Some factors were fairly stable across the four datasets studied: for example, individuals were more likely to smoke if they had little or no education, regardless of if they were male or female, or lived in a low or a middle income country. Nevertheless, other factors, notably age and wealth, showed a differential effect on smoking by sex or country income level. While women in the low-income country group were twice as likely to smoke if they were in the lowest wealth quintile compared with the highest, the association was absent in the middle-income country group.ConclusionInformation on how smoking is distributed among low- or middle-income countries will allow policy makers to tailor future policies, and target the most vulnerable populations.
Highlights
Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of premature death and disability, and over 80% of the world’s smokers live in low- or middle-income countries
Every year between five and six million deaths worldwide are attributed to tobacco use and exposure to second hand smoke [1,2]
Over five million of these deaths are attributed directly to smoking, and about 600,000 to second hand smoke [3] i.e., people who themselves do not smoke but breathe air polluted by poisonous gases from those who smoke
Summary
Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of premature death and disability, and over 80% of the world’s smokers live in low- or middle-income countries. Tobacco use is a leading cause of premature death and disability. Every year between five and six million deaths worldwide are attributed to tobacco use and exposure to second hand smoke [1,2]. Over five million of these deaths are attributed directly to smoking, and about 600,000 to second hand smoke [3] i.e., people who themselves do not smoke but breathe air polluted by poisonous gases from those who smoke. Tobacco consumption is still rising globally, largely because the industry is targeting young people and women in many low- and middle-income countries [4,5,6,7]. Improving the global knowledge base is an important step to understand the epidemiology of smoking and in the planning, implementation and evaluation of appropriate interventions targeted at vulnerable populations
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