Prevalence and Drivers of Tobacco use Among Young Men in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from 21 Nationally Representative Surveys

Abstract

Background Tobacco consumption – including smoking, chewing tobacco and snuff has been recognized as a global public health issue and a major cause of premature mortality and morbidity. An annual estimated figure of more than 7 million people dies due to tobacco consumption with more than 6 million of those deaths attributed to direct tobacco use and about 890, 000 resulting from exposure to second-hand smoke. This paper seeks to examine the prevalence and drivers of tobacco use among young men in sub-Saharan Africa.Methods Using pooled data from the most recent Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted between January 1, 2010, and December 3, 2018, in 21 countries that had data on tobacco use in SSA this paper examines tobacco use among young men in sub-Saharan Africa. A chi-square was conducted at the bivariate level to test for the significance of tobacco use across the socio-demographic characteristics. A binary logistic regression test was conducted at the multi-variate level to estimate the determinants of tobacco use among young people in SSA. The confidence interval for both the bivariate and multivariate tests was 95%.Results The overall prevalence of tobacco use was 9.34% (95% CI: 7.52–11.16) with the lowest prevalence in Ghana (1.46%) and the highest in Lesotho (39.19%). It was also found that those aged 20–24 [AOR = 3.080, CI = 2.840–3.341], engaged in unskilled labour [AOR = 2.651, CI = 2.333–3.012], who are widowed/divorced/separated [AOR = 2.747, CI= [2.301–3.279] and with no religion [AOR = 1.460, CI = 1.273–1.676] had higher odds of using tobacco. On the other hand, young, men with secondary [AOR = 0.726, CI = 0.645–0.818] and higher [AOR = 0.563, CI= [0.446–0.710] level of education, those in the richest wealth quintile[AOR = 0.758, CI = 0.660–0.871], those in rural areas [AOR = 0.869, CI = 0.795–0.950], and those who read newspaper or magazine at least once a week [AOR = 0.898, CI = 0.808–0.998] had lower odds of tobacco use.Conclusion Age, level of education, wealth status, working status, marital status, religion and place of residence were statistically significant association with tobacco use among young men in SSA. These socioeconomic factors should be considered when trying to tackle tobacco use in SSA. Specific public health interventions should take into account these socio-economic factors to reduce tobacco use among young people in SSA

Prevalence, trends and distribution of lifestyle cancer risk factors in Uganda: a 20-year systematic review

“…These findings are in line with the available evidence in Africa, where observational studies have identified that, being male, older age, lower education status and lower SES are associated with tobacco use and harmful use of alcohol in Africa [75,76]. Similarly increasing age; being female; residing in urban areas; formal employment; higher education; and higher SES have been reported in several studies to be associated with being overweight, obesity and physical inactivity in African settings [65,66,77,78].…”