Ethnic and gender differences in longitudinal smoking trends in Taiwan, 2004 to 2007

BACKGROUND. The Austronesian minority of indigenous tribe groups in Taiwan is heavily affected by health disparities. The Bureau of Health Promotion (BHP) has conducted annual population-based telephone surveys to monitor tobacco consumption since 2004, which provide the gold standard to determine trends in Taiwanese smoking prevalence. OBJECTIVES. To explore ethnic and gender differences in smoking prevalence from 2004 to 2007. METHODS. Data was derived from the BHP adult tobacco use surveys which used the probability proportional to size sampling technique. On average, the nationally-representative samples polled more than 16,000 respondents each year. RESULTS. The smoking prevalence for indigenous versus non-indigenous respondents, from 2004 to 2007, was 31.8% vs. 26.3%, 27.7% vs. 24.4%, 30.8% vs. 23.3%, and 33.1% vs. 23.0%, respectively. That is, indigenous males consistently smoked more. Significant ethnic differences in smoking prevalence were observed in 2004, 2006, and 2007. Among smoking respondents, significant differences between indigenous and non-indigenous respondents in intentions to quit smoking were found in 2004 (58.4% vs. 46.0%, p <.05) and 2007 (62.1% vs. 45.4%, p <.001). Of note, the smoking prevalence for non-indigenous females was lower and decreased slightly, 6% in 2004 to 5% in 2007. On the other hand, smoking prevalence for indigenous females increased from 13% in 2004 to 18% in 2007. CONCLUSIONS. Significant ethnic and gender differences in adult smoking prevalence were observed. These finding suggest that tobacco control education intervention must be carefully tailored to address gender sensitive and cultural appropriate approaches.