Analysis of a Research Article About Tobacco
This is an analysis about a research study by Palipudi et al. (2012), published in PLoS One, titled “Social Determinants of Health and Tobacco Use in Thirteen Low and Middle Income Countries: Evidence from Global Adult Tobacco Survey”. The researchers sought to examine several social determinants of health such as gender, age, educational level, place of residence, wealth index, and knowledge of harmful effects of smoking in 209,027 subjects older than 15 years of age, and residents of 13 low-and-middle income countries: Viet Nam, Uruguay, Ukraine, Turkey, Thailand, Russian Federation, Poland, Philippines, Mexico, India, Egypt, China, and Bangladesh. The evidence shows that there is a direct relationship between male gender and urban place of residence, and higher odds ratio for tobacco use. Furthermore, the authors found an inverse relationship between educational level, wealth index, and knowledge of harmful effects of tobacco use, and higher odds ratio for tobacco use. That means that within their sample, it was more common for men living in urban areas, with low educational level, wealth index, and knowledge of harmful effects of tobacco to be current tobacco users. The authors made use of tables and graphics to illustrate their arguments. For example, figure 1 shows that not all tobacco users are smokers.
There is a big proportion of smokeless tobacco users, especially in Bangladesh and India, followed by Philippines, Viet Nam, and Thailand. Furthermore, in the same graph the authors show the average prevalence of current tobacco users, by country, and stratified by type of tobacco use. This paper helped me understand the main social determinants of health related to tobacco use in low-and-middle income countries. Part of the unexpected knowledge that I acquired via this article is the high proportion of smokeless tobacco users, and how this proportion contributes to the country’s prevalence. Interestingly and from a household budget point of view, I found it paradoxical that low income was associated to tobacco use. Furthermore, the authors did not include information on frequency and length of smoking, though they had access to these data. I do not agree with this decision, unless further articles address these variables. Nevertheless, the information provided in this article is highly informative on the main social determinants of health to focus on when designing public policies oriented to the prevention of smoking as a risk factor for morbidity and mortality.
References
Palipudi, K. M., Gupta, P. C., Sinha, D. N., Andes, L. J., Asma, S., McAfee, T., & GATS Collaborative Group. (2012). Social determinants of health and tobacco use in thirteen low and middle income countries: evidence from Global Adult Tobacco Survey. PLoS One, 7(3), e33466.
