Socio-demographic determinants of smoking among low-income women in Aleppo, Syria.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the spread and sociodemographic correlates of smoking among low-income women in Aleppo, Syria.

METHODS

A sample of 412 women was recruited from eight randomly selected primary care centres (total number 22) in Aleppo. The response rate was 97.2%, the mean age of participants was 28 (+/- 8.4) years, and married women constituted 88.3% of those studied. A special questionnaire was prepared for study purposes, and interviews were conducted in an anonymous, one-to-one fashion.

RESULTS

Current smoking and daily smoking were found among respectively 16.5% and 7.5% of those investigated. Smokers were older, economically better off and came from smaller households (P < 0.05 for all) than non-smokers. They also were more likely to be non-Arabs, Christians, and city residents than nonsmokers (P < 0.05 for all). Mental morbidity and physical abuse were both associated with smoking among those investigated (P < or = 0.05). Smokers among married women were more likely to marry later, to marry a nonrelative, to be older at the birth of their first child, and were less likely to live with members of their husband's family (P < 0.05 for all). Multivariate predictors of smoking status among married women were race, residence, household, consanguinity, working, mental morbidity and physical abuse.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data show that the level of smoking among poor women in this society is still low compared to that of men, but it is higher than that of women in other social strata studied. Women's smoking is found to be associated with a less tradition-oriented social profile.