Citation

Gugushvili, Alexi; McKee, Martin; Azarova, Aytalina; Murphy, Michael; Irdam, Darja; & King, Lawrence (2018). Parental Transmission of Smoking among Middle-Aged and Older Populations in Russia and Belarus. International Journal of Public Health, 63(3), 349-358. PMCID: PMC5978922

Abstract

Objectives: The very high rates of smoking among men and the rapid changes among women in the Post-Soviet countries mean that this region offers an opportunity to understand better the intergenerational role of parental influences on smoking. Methods: In this study, we exploit a unique data set, the PrivMort cohort study conducted in 30 Russian and 20 Belarusian towns in 2014–2015, which collects information on behaviours of middle-aged and older individuals and their parents, including smoking. We explored the associations between smoking by parents and their offspring using multiply imputed data sets and multilevel mixed-effect Poisson regressions. Results: Adjusting for a wide array of social origin, socio-demographic, and socio-economic variables, our analysis suggests that sons of regularly smoking fathers have prevalence ratios of 1.35 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.21–1.50] and 1.39 (CI 1.23–1.58) of smoking, while the figures for daughters of regularly smoking mothers are 1.91 (CI 1.40–2.61) and 2.30 (CI 1.61–3.28), respectively, in Russia and Belarus. Conclusions: Intergenerational paternal and maternal influences on smoking should be taken into account in studies seeking to monitor the rates of smoking and the impact of tobacco control programmes.

URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-1068-0

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2018

Journal Title

International Journal of Public Health

Author(s)

Gugushvili, Alexi
McKee, Martin
Azarova, Aytalina
Murphy, Michael
Irdam, Darja
King, Lawrence

PMCID

PMC5978922