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Cigarette Smoking among Taiwanese Adults

I-Hsuan Wu, Ekere James Essien, Sujit S. Sansgiry, Ronald J Peters, Mo Yang and Susan Abughosh

Introduction: On January 11, 2009, Taiwan initiated a new anti-smoking law - smoking is not permitted at any public place with more than three people. No studies regarding cigarette smoking have been conducted after the implementation of the new policy. The objective of the study was to examine cigarette smoking among a sample of Taiwanese adults and correlates of its use.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a convenient sample of willing adults 18 years or older in Taipei, Taiwan, from January 2011 to May 2011. Survey questions included: socio-demographic characteristics, health status and mental health, tobacco use history, attitudes and intentions of tobacco use, and factors associated with tobacco use. Logistic regression models were constructed to determine predictors of ever-use (model 1) and past 30- day use (model 2) of cigarette.

Results: A total of 926 participants completed the survey. More than half of the study sample had previously smoked a cigarette (54.4%), and approximately 42% in the past 30 days. Male gender (OR=2.02 in model 1), having lower grades (OR=4.11 in model 1, OR=4.19 in model 2), having seen an anti-smoking advertisement on TV (OR=1.96 in model 2), used betel nuts before (OR=11.27 in model 1, OR=3.78 in model 2), drank alcohol in the last 30 days (OR=1.86 in model 1, OR=3.10 in model 2), having a brother or sister who smokes cigarettes (OR=1.97 in model 1), having more than half of friends who smoke (OR=2.24 in model 2), and having more than one close friend who smokes (OR=4.70 in model 1, OR=5.92 in model 2) were significant predictors of cigarette smoking. Participants older than 25 years (OR=0.61 in model 2) and those who previously heard an anti-smoking message from their teacher (OR=0.54 in model 1, OR=0.44 in model 2) were less likely to smoke.

Conclusion: The study demonstrated high rates of cigarette smoking in Taiwan. These findings underscore the magnitude of the smoking problem in the Taiwanese population and the urgent need for effective interventions. Future research should focus on developing interventions that incorporate the predictors identified.