Socio-demographic determinants of cigarette smoking among adults attending a community based health screening program in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Socio-demographic factors and knowledge of harmful health effects of tobacco are important factors that may influence smoking behavior. We aimed to determine the socio demographic factors associated with cigarette smoking among adults who voluntarily attended a free health screening program.

Methods: We recruited consecutive participants and used a structured questionnaire to obtain their socio-demographic profile, cigarette smoking behavior and their knowledge of the harmful health effects of tobacco smoking. We determined the factors associated with cigarette smoking by stepwise logistic regression.

Results: There were 238 participants (age range 25 years to 64.years, mean=43.2±9.6 years, 55% male). There were 45 (18.9%) ever cigarette smokers and 44 (97.8%) of all ever smokers were males. Prevalence of current cigarette smoking was 12 (5%) among all participants. All current smokers were males, 50% had tertiary education and over 80% were in occupational class 3-5. 83.3% of current smokers desired to quit but did not have access to smoking cessation services. 10.9% of all participants had good knowledge of the harmful health effects of cigarette smoking, 29.4%had some knowledge and 59.7%had little knowledge. There was no significant relationship between the level of knowledge and smoking behavior. Male gender and not taking alcohol regularly were significant determinants of being an ever smoker.

Conclusion: Social factors such as older age, higher education and lower occupational class influence tobacco smoking behavior among adults in Lagos and the level of knowledge of harmful health effects of tobacco is low among all participants. There is need to design tobacco control programs targeted at adults in the community and the establishment of smoking cessation clinics and support groups to assist smokers to quit.