Prevalence and correlates of roll-your-own smoking in Thailand and Malaysia: Findings of the ITC-South East Asia Survey.
Roll-your-own (RYO) cigarette use has been subject to relatively limited research, particularly in developing countries. This paper seeks to describe RYO use in Thailand and Malaysia and relate RYO use to smokers' knowledge of the harmfulness of tobacco. Data come from face-to-face surveys with 4,004 adult smokers from Malaysia (N = 2,004) and Thailand (N = 2000), collected between January and March 2005. The prevalence of any use of RYO cigarettes varied greatly between Malaysia (17%) and Thailand (58%). In both countries, any RYO use was associated with living in rural areas, older average age, lower level of education, male gender, not being in paid work, slightly lower consumption of cigarettes, higher social acceptability of smoking, and positive attitudes toward tobacco regulation. Among RYO users, exclusive use of RYO cigarettes (compared with mixed use) was associated with older age, female gender (relatively), thinking about the enjoyment of smoking, and not making a special effort to buy cheaper cigarettes if the price goes up. Finally, exclusive RYO smokers were less aware of health warnings (RYO tobacco carries no health warnings), but even so, knowledge of the health effects of tobacco was equivalent.
VicHealth Centre for Tobacco Control, Cancer Council of Victoria, Australia. david.young@cancervic.org.au
David
D
Young
Hua-Hie
HH
Yong
Ron
R
Borland
Hana
H
Ross
Buppha
B
Sirirassamee
Foong
F
Kin
David
D
Hammond
Richard
R
O'Connor
Geoffrey T
GT
Fong
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015995:Prevalence; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*