Influence of Social Determinate on Smoking Behavior among Military Conscripts in the Northern Thailand

Abstract

One-third of people around the world are current smokers. Tobacco is a major cause of mortality and many chronic diseases. In Thailand, trend of current smoker among male 19-24 year of age has increased. The aim of study is to identify the social factors that related to smoking behavior among conscripts. The self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 509 military conscripts in the northern part of Thailand. The results from descriptive and multinomial logistic regression showed that percentage of never smokers, current smokers, former or non-daily smokers were 41.65, 30.45 and 27.90 respectively. The factors affected to smoking behavior included peer smoking (OR = 5.95), family members smoking (OR = 2.16), alcohol consumption (OR = 1.80), history of employment (OR = 1.73) and positive attitude about smoking (OR = 1.56). Inclusion, the social factors are influential factors of current smokers among military conscripts. According to, Odd ratio of social factors between model 1 and model 2 obviously increased in model 2 (model 1; peer smoking (OR = 2.85), family members smoking (OR = 1.55).