title: The influence of religious affiliation on heavy drinking, heavy smoking and heavy betel nut chewing.
abstract: The results of a national survey of determinants of drinking, smoking and betel-nut chewing behaviors are analyzed. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate whether drinking, smoking and betel-nut chewing are influenced by a variety of religions based on Taiwan data. Our results suggest that Buddhism, Taoism and practitioners of Chinese folk region are positively associated with heavy betel nut chewing while the religion effects on heavy smoking and drinking are statistically insignificant. Our findings on religion effects in Taiwan can be a valuable reference for comparison in Christian and western countries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics, National Chi-Nan University, 1 University Rd., Puli, Nantou 545, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: ming@ncnu.edu.tw.
authors.forename: Chiang-Ming
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001114:Areca; D002016:Buddhism; D002835:Christianity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008409:Mastication; D008875:Middle Aged; D012067:Religion; D012072:Religious Philosophies; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Alcohol; Betel nut; Cigarette smoking; Religion