Sociodemographic Differences in Smoking Knowledge in Malaysia

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to examine the sociodemographic determinants of amount of smoking knowledge in Malaysia. Data are obtained from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS). The GATS uses a multistage stratified sampling. A total of 4,153 respondents are used for analyses. The effects of sociodemographic factors on smoking knowledge are examined using a negative binomial regression. Age, wealth index, education, ethnicity, house locality, and smoking behavior are significantly associated with smoking knowledge. In particular, there are negative relationships between smoking knowledge and higher wealth index, less-educated individuals, Chinese, rural dwellers, and smokers. The present study concludes that sociodemographic factors play an important role in determining smoking knowledge. Hence, as an intervention measure directed toward improving the knowledge of smoking among Malaysian population, effective policies should pay special attention to individuals who are likely to have poor information on smoking.

Keywords

age education ethnicity knowledge smoking

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alam

A. Y.

Iqbal

Mohamud

K. B.

Laporte

R. E.

Ahmed

Nishtar

(2008). Investigating socio-economic-demographic determinants of tobacco use in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. BMC Public Health, 8, Article 50.

Amin

A. M.

Mostafa

Sarriff

(2014). Factors associated with the general public knowledge and awareness of cardiovascular diseases and its risk factors in Penang—Malaysia. IOSR Journal of Pharmacy, 4(6), 21-27.

Angeles-Llerenas

Carbajal-Sanchez

Allen

Zamora-Munoz

Lazcano-Ponce

(2005). Gender, body mass index and socio-demographic variables associated with knowledge about type 2 diabetes mellitus among 13,293 Mexican students. Acta Diabetologica, 42, 36-45.

Bauer

Gohlmann

Sinning

(2007). Gender differences in smoking behavior. Health Economics, 16, 895-909.

Borland

Hill

(1997). Initial impact of the new Australian tobacco health warnings on knowledge and beliefs. Tobacco Control, 6, 317-325.

Cameron

A. C.

Trivedi

P. K.

(2005). Microeconometrics: Methods and applications. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Carpenter

B. D.

Zoller

S. M.

Balsis

Otilingam

P. G.

Gatz

(2011). Demographic and contextual factors related to knowledge about Alzheimer’s disease. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias, 26, 121-126.

Cheah

Y. K.

(2012). The determinants of being a cigarette smoker: An exploratory study in Penang, Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Society, 13, 245-254.

Cheah

Y. K.

Naidu

B. M.

(2012). Exploring factors influencing smoking behaviour in Malaysia. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 13, 1125-1130.

10.

Cheah

Y. K.

T. T.

(2012). The determinants of consumer health information on chronic non-communicable disease: An exploratory study in Penang, Malaysia. Journal of Health and Translational Medicine, 15(2), 1-7.

11.

Cheah

Y. K.

Teh

C. H.

Lim

H. K.

(2018). Factors associated with second-hand smoke awareness in Malaysia. Proceedings of Singapore Healthcare, 27, 148-156.

12.

Cheng

K. W.

Kenkel

D. S.

(2010). U.S. cigarette demand: 1944-2004. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 10(1), Article 78.

13.

Chesser

A. K.

Woods

N. K.

Smothers

Rogers

(2016). Health literacy and older adults: A systematic review. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 2, 1-13.

14.

Finch

Novotny

T. E.

Qin

Xia

Xin

(2010). Smoking knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among rural- to-urban migrant women in Beijing, China. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, 22, 342-353.

15.

Gelaw

S. M.

(2016). Socioeconomic factors associated with knowledge on tuberculosis among adults in Ethiopia. Tuberculosis Research and Treatment, 2016, 6207457.

16.

Guddattu

Rao

K. A.

Rajkannan

(2015). Comparison between count regression and binary logistic regression models in the analysis of adverse drug reaction data. Probstat Forum, 8, 140-147.

17.

Hsieh

C. R.

Yen

L. L.

Liu

J. T.

Lin

C. J.

(1996). Smoking, health knowledge, and anti-smoking campaigns: An empirical study in Taiwan. Journal of Health Economics, 15, 87-104.

18.

Institute of Public Health. (2012). Report of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) Malaysia 2011. Putrajaya: Ministry of Health Malaysia.

19.

Islam

F. M. A.

Chakrabarti

Islam

S. Z.

Finger

R. P.

Critchley

(2015). Factors associated with awareness, attitudes and practices regarding common eye diseases in the general population in a rural district in Bangladesh: The Bangladesh Population-based Diabetes and Eye Study (BPDES). PLoS ONE, 10(7), e0133043.

20.

Kabir

M. A.

Goh

K. L.

(2014). Determinants of tobacco use among students aged 13–15 years in Nepal and Sri Lanka: Results from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, 2007. Health Education Journal, 73, 51-61.

21.

Kenkel

D. S.

(1991). Health behavior, health knowledge, and schooling. Journal of Political Economy, 99, 287-305.

22.

Khwaja

Silverman

Sloan

(2007). Time preference, time discounting, and smoking decisions. Journal of Health Economics, 26, 927-949.

23.

Lim

H. K.

Ghazali

S. M.

Kee

C. C.

Lim

K. K.

Chan

Y. Y.

Teh

H. C.

. . . Salleh

(2013). Epidemiology of smoking among Malaysian adult males: Prevalence and associated factors. BMC Public Health, 13, Article 8.

24.

Lin

S. J.

(2010). Estimating the determinants of smoking behavior in Taiwan. Substance Use & Misuse, 45, 482-495.

25.

Manrique

Jensen

H. H.

(2004). Consumption of tobacco and alcoholic beverages among Spanish consumers. Southwestern Economic Review, 31, 41-56.

26.

Nourjah

Wagener

D. K.

Eberhardt

Horowitz

A. M.

(1994). Knowledge of risk factors and risk behaviors related to coronary heart disease among blue and white collar males. Journal of Public Health Policy, 15, 443-459.

27.

O’Brien

R. M.

(2007). A caution regarding rules of thumb for variance inflation factors. Quality & Quantity, 41, 673-690.

28.

Parmenter

Waller

Wardle

(2000). Demographic variation in nutrition knowledge in England. Health Education Research, 15, 163-174.

29.

Raptou

Mattas

Tsakiridou

Katrakilidis

(2005). Factors affecting cigarette demand. International Advances in Economic Research, 11, 275-290.

30.

Rutstein

S. O.

Johnson

(2004). The DHS wealth index (DHS Comparative Reports No. 6). Calverton, MD: ORC Macro.

31.

Rutten

L. J. F.

Augustson

E. M.

Moser

R. P.

Beckjord

E. B.

Hesse

B. W.

(2008). Smoking knowledge and behavior in the United States: Sociodemographic, smoking status, and geographic patterns. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 10, 1559-1570.

32.

Siahpush

McNeill

Hammond

Fong

G. T.

(2006). Socioeconomic and country variations in knowledge of health risks of tobacco smoking and toxic constituents of smoke: Results from the 2002 International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey. Tobacco Control, 15(Suppl. 3), iii65-iii70.

33.

Smits

Steendijk

(2013, December). The International Wealth Index (IWI) (Nice Working Paper, No. 12-107). Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Radboud University.

34.

StataCorp. (2013). Stata statistical software: Release 13.1. College Station, TX: Author.

35.

Tan

A. K. G.

Yen

S. T.

Nayga

R. M.

(2009). Role of education in cigarette smoking: An analysis of Malaysian Household Survey data. Asian Economic Journal, 23, 1-17.

36.

World Health Organization. (2015). WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.

37.

Yardley

Glover

Allen-Mersh

T. G.

(2000). Demographic factors associated with knowledge of colorectal cancer symptoms in a UK population-based survey. Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 82, 205-209.

38.

Yen

S. T.

(2005). Zero observations and gender differences in cigarette consumption. Applied Economics, 37, 1839-1849.