141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

281279
Understanding tobacco use among youth in Armenia: A multilevel analysis

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Rafie Boghozian, MBA , College of Nursing, East Tennessee State University, Johnson city, TN
Sreenivas P. Veeranki, MBBS, DrPH, MPH , Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN
David Kioko, Bsc , Department of Health Services Management and Policy, College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN
Hadii Mamudu, PhD, MPA , Department of Health Services Management and Policy, College of Public Health, East Tennessee State University, Johnson city, TN
Background: Tobacco is a global epidemic with its use currently shifted to low-and-middle-income countries. Armenia ranks first and sixth in number of smokers in Europe and world, with >70% of its population smoke. Up to 90% of the smokers initiate smoking during their adolescence. This study is the first investigation to estimate prevalence and identify key factors associated with youth tobacco use in Armenia.

Methods: Cross sectional data for tobacco use for 1,453 students representing 35,389 youth were obtained from 2004 Armenian Global Youth Tobacco Survey. Overall survey response rate was 84.7%. Dependent variables included current cigarette smokers and users of tobacco products. Descriptive statistics for frequencies and proportions were reported. Using , SAS v9.2, a 2-level generalized linear model was conducted to identify factors associated with youth tobacco use, adjusting for student-level characteristics including parental or peer smoking behavior, exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS), support for smoke-free policy, and school-level characteristics including anti-smoking education, tobacco industry promotions.

Results: Approximately 5% (10.3% boys; 0.9% girls) and 7.3% (13.0% boys; 2.7% girls) currently smoke or use tobacco products, with boys using tobacco significantly higher than girls. Approximately 90% were exposed to SHS, while 37% reported school anti-smoking education. Multilevel analyses identified parental or peer smoking and/or exposure to SHS significantly associated with increased tobacco use, with intra-class correlation coefficients indicating significant variability by school-level characteristics.

Conclusion: This study provides insight into tobacco use in Armenia that could aid policymakers and public health community to prevent initiation and encourage cessation among youth.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe key factors that influence tobacco use among Armenian youth Identify attitudes toward tobacco use among Armenian youth Identify key factors that facilitate prevention of tobacco use among Armenian youth

Keywords: Youth, Tobacco Control

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have worked on the statistical analysis of several posters and papers on understanding tobacco use in the adolescent and college age student with the Department of Public Health.
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.