Determinants of smoking at home among Asians living in Harris , Texas

Although smoking behavior is decreasing among Asians, it still remains one of the primary sources of morbidity in this group. Recent data show that some Asians living in Harris County report still allowing smoking inside their home. We selected Asian respondents (N=912) from the Houston Health Survey 2010 (N=6494) to examine who still allowed smoking at home. Uni-variate analyses show that there is a wide difference in who allows smoking at home by ancestry. Higher proportions of individuals of Vietnamese ancestry reported allowing smoking at home compared to those of Chinese ancestry or any other ancestry. Further analysis indicated that higher proportions of older Asians (>50 years of age) reported allowing smoking at home compared to younger Asians. Overall, higher proportions of males and unmarried individuals reported allowing smoking at home than females and married individuals. Multivariate regression suggested that age and marital status could predict who allows smoking at home, while accounting for other demographic variables. Those 50 years and older were more than 4 times likely to allow smoking at home compared to lower age group (OR, 4.5, p<0.001). Likewise, those who were not married or lived separately were nearly 5 times more likely to report that they allowed smoking at home. One likely explanation could be that the public health messages have not reached the older Asians possibly because of cultural and language issues. We speculate that those who are not married also tend to live alone and living alone may make smoking at home permissible due to lack of social control. Culturally appropriate and targeted public health programs for older and unmarried Asian adults to facilitate quitting of smoking at home may be useful.