Socio-economic contributors to current cigarette smoking among Iranian household heads: findings from a national household survey

Background: The first step in developing a series of appropriate interventions for controlling the epidemic of smoking is to scrutinize surveillance data to understand any contributing socio-economic factors. The aim of this study is to identify the prevalence rates and the socio-economic factors associated with cigarette smoking among Iranian household heads in 2016. Methods: All data related to cigarette smoking were extracted from the Iranian Households? Income Expenditure Survey (IHIES) by the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI). The prevalence of current cigarette smoking was calculated by gender, educational level, employment status, age, and marital status. Then, socio-economic factors associated with cigarette smoking were analyzed using a logistic regression. Results: The prevalence of current cigarette smoking was 17.8% for male and 6.6% for female-headed households. Being aged 37?41 years, married, and having a primary school educational level had the highest prevalence for current cigarette smoking in the sample. Being female, unemployed, divorced showed a significant association with the likelihood of current cigarette smoking among household heads. Conclusion: The positive association of current cigarette smoking across all economic levels was an unexpected finding. However, other socio-economic factors including current employment status and educational levels showed expected associations.