Tobacco smoke exposure among women in Turkey and determinants

ABSTRACT

Objectives

The primary aim of this study was to ascertain the relationship between the demographic and socioeconomic conditions of women aged 15 and older, and their exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) in Turkey.

Method

To achieve this, we used the micro dataset of the Turkey Health Survey conducted by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), specifically the data from 19,982 women aged 15 or older. We performed our analysis with ordered logistic regression, ordered probit regression, generalized ordered logistic regression, and generalized ordered probit regression to determine the factors related to individual exposure to tobacco smoke.

Results

According to the model comparison criteria, generalized ordered logistic regression produced the best model. The consequent results of this model indicated that age, education level, working conditions, average monthly net income, general health status, psychosocial support conditions, alcohol consumption, and the respective survey year were efficient variables with regard to tobacco smoke exposure.

Conclusion

This study highlights, in particular, the need to target young employed women of low socioeconomic and educational levels, who consume alcohol, with poor overall health, and receive psychosocial support. These groups are more vulnerable to SHS exposure, thus tobacco prevention and quitting programs should focus on these groups.

KEYWORDS:

• Secondhand smoke exposure
• tobacco exposure
• survey data
• generalized ordered models
• Turkey

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Turkey Statistical Institute for the data. The views and opinions expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors only and do not necessarily represent the views, official policy or position of the Turkey Statistical Institute.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.