186459 Religiosity and acculturation affect tobacco use among California's Asian Indians

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 3:00 PM

Minal Patel, MPH , UCLA School of Public Health, Department of Health Services, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, Los Angeles, CA
William McCarthy, PhD , UCLA School of Public Health, Department of Health Services, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, Los Angeles, CA
Ritesh Mistry, PhD, MPH , UCLA School of Public Health, Department of Health Services, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, Los Angeles, CA
  
Rates of lifetime (14.8%) and current smoking (5.5%) are lower among Asian Indian Americans compared to the U.S. population. Their lower prevalence may reflect the effects of protective factors against smoking, such as religiosity and immigrant status. A countervailing effect, however, is acculturation, which has been linked to increased tobacco use in female immigrant populations. We examine the role of religiosity and acculturation on smoking in Asian Indian Americans.

Data were collected from a random sample telephone survey of predominantly immigrant (80.6%) Asian Indian adults (n=3228) in California. Multivariate logistic regression results indicated that gender, religiosity, and religious affiliation predicted lifetime smoking after controlling for education, percentage of life spent in the U.S., geographic proximity to other Asian Indians, and acculturation. Men (OR=9.39; p=0.000) and older Asian Indian adults (OR=1.02; p=0.000) were more likely to report lifetime smoking. Muslims (OR=1.86; p=0.01) were more likely to report lifetime smoking than Hindus, whereas Sikhs (OR=0.24; p=0.000) were less likely to report lifetime smoking. Regardless of type of religious affiliation, higher religiosity (OR=0.84; p=0.000) was associated with lower rates of lifetime smoking.

Acculturation (OR=1.34; p=0.043) played a significant role in predicting current smoking rates while religiosity did not (OR=0.85, p=0.109). Current smoking rates decreased with greater educational attainment (OR=0.752; p=0.046) and age (OR=.96; p=0.000) and followed U.S. population trends.

These findings are important for understanding the impact of religion and acculturation on tobacco use for both Asian Indians and other immigrant populations.

Learning Objectives:
To describe protective factors that explain observed low rates of tobacco smoking rates among Asian Indian immigrants in California. To determine if and how much protective factors can help minimize tobacco use among Asian American immigrant populations as they acculturate to U.S. lifestyle practices.

Keywords: Asian Americans, Tobacco

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have completed a 2-year research fellowship from the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program, which allowed me to build my research capacities in the areas of tobacco use amongst CA youth and tobacco use in South Asian adults in CA. Please see the attached selected portions of my resume: EDUCATION 8/05; San Diego State University, San Diego, CA;MPH (Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences) RELEVANT EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE 7/05-Present; Research Analyst/Cornelius Hopper Fellow; UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center: Collect, analyze, report data on various projects related to tobacco use, physical activity, nutrition, & cancer; evaluate, conduct & report community based research. Current Projects: TUPE (Tobacco Use Prevention Education) Evaluation Project; Project Director UCLA in LA; South Asian Network Needs Assessment Project; Research Associate Assisted in evaluation of South Asian Needs Assessment focusing on tobacco use and domestic violence; conducted data management, analysis; assisted in writing reports; presented information to community members, selected to attend Tobacco Control Section (TCS) Communities of Excellence Conference; trained community members to conduct evaluation of tobacco use. 6/06-8/06: Evaluation Consultant; South Asian Network (SAN) Los Angeles, CA Conducted evaluation of tobacco use prevention pilot project funded by the Tobacco Control Section (TCS), CA DPH regarding South Asian tobacco use. Evaluation Consultant;Korean Health Education Information Resource Center (KHEIR) in LA, CA. PUBLICATIONS Patel, M.R., Mayer, J.A., Slymen, D.J., Weeks, J.R., & Hurd, A.L. Correlates of tanning facility prevalence within San Diego County, California Census Tracts. Journal of Community Health. December 2007 32(6):391-400; Printed online August 2007. Hurd, A.L., Mayer, J.A., Woodruff, S.I., Belch, G.E., Patel, M.R. Comparing two methods of measuring legislation compliance among indoor tanning facilities. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. January 2006, 54:433-9. Selected Conference Presentations: Chawla, N., Glenn, B., Surani, Z., Patel, M., Bastani R. (2007, November) Domestic Violence and Hate Crimes Among South Asian Americans. Poster presentation at the Annual American Public Health Association Meeting, Washington D.C. Chawla, N., Glenn, B., Surani, Z., Patel, M., Bastani R.(2007, November) Smokeless Tobacco Product Use among South Asian Americans. Oral presentation at the Annual American Public Health Association Meeting, Washington D.C. Patel, M.R., McCarthy, W.J., Mistry, R., Lu, Y., Parfenov, S., Cowling, D. (2007, October). Tobacco Retailer Proximity to Schools & Teen Smoking: A Geospatial Analysis. Poster presented at the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program Biennial Investigator Conference, Sacramento, California. Lu, Y., Patel, M.R., McCarthy, W.J., Mistry, R. (2007, October). Teen Student Smoking and School-adjacent Tobacco Retailer Density in California: A GIS Analysis. Poster presented at the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program Biennial Investigator Conference, Sacramento, California. Mistry, R., McCarthy, W.J., Patel, M.R., Lu, Y. (2007, October). Income Inequality Increases Risk of Teen Smoking in California. Poster presented at the Tobacco Related Disease Research Program Biennial Investigator Conference, Sacramento, California. Chawla, N., Glenn, B., Surani, Z., Patel, M., Bastani R. (2007, September) Domestic Violence and Hate Crimes among South Asians in Southern California. Oral presentation at the Fourth Annual Asian American Health Conference, New York, New York. Chawla, N., Glenn, B., Surani, Z., Patel, M., Bastani R. (2007, September) Tobacco Use Among South Asians in Southern California. Oral presentation at the Fourth Annual Asian American Health Conference, New York, New York. Glenn, B., Surani, Z., Chawla, N., Patel, M., Parikh P., Bastani R. (2007, April) Tobacco Use and Cancer Screening among South Asians: Results of a community-university collaborative study. Poster presented at the American Cancer Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. Mistry, R., McCarthy, W., Hammerl, P., Patel, M. (2007, April). Down In the Dumps, Up in Smoke: Pathways and Disparities in the Relation Between Teen Depressiveness and Smoking. Poster presented at the American Cancer Society, New Orleans, Louisiana. Glenn, B., Surani, Z., Chawla, N., Patel, M., Parikh P., Bastani R. (2007, March) Tobacco Use and Cancer Screening among South Asians: Results of a community-university collaborative study. Poster presented at the American Society of Preventive Oncology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana. Mistry, R., McCarthy, W., Hammerl, P., Patel, M. (2007, March). Down In the Dumps, Up in Smoke: Pathways and Disparities in the Relation Between Teen Depressiveness and Smoking. Presented at the American Society of Preventive Oncology Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas. McCarthy, W., Mistry, R., Freed, B., Patel, M., Zheng, H., Cowling, D., Hanson, T, Dietsch, B., Rohrbach, L. (2006, March). Tobacco Retailers: Responding to "need" or generating demand? Poster presented at the 27th annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, California. Annals of Behavioral Medicine
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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