The association between cigarette smoking and work status among Egyptian adolescent males

Cigarette consumption has rapidly increased in Egypt and large numbers of young people are now smoking, but little is known about factors influencing smoking behavior in Egyptian adolescents.

To determine whether working is associated with cigarette smoking among Egyptian adolescent males.

Data were from the nationally representative Adolescence and Social Change in Egypt survey. A total of 4354 boys and 4773 girls aged 10-19 years and one adult in each household were interviewed between March and August 1997. Given the low prevalence of smoking among girls, they were excluded from this analysis.

Workers tended to be older, have more smoking peers, be of lower socio-economic status and live in rural regions; these confounders were included in multivariate models. Comparing former and never workers, the OR of ever smoking was 1.57 (95%CI 1.17-2.12), and that of current smoking was 1.46 (95%CI 0.99-2.25); comparing unpaid workers and never workers, the OR for ever smoking was 0.86 (95%CI 0.63-1.19), and for current smoking it was 1.08 (95%CI 0.69-1.67); and comparing paid workers with never workers, the OR for ever smoking was 1.36 (95%CI 1.00-1.85) while for current smoking it was 1.68 (95%CI 1.07-2.65).

Egyptian boys who do paid work have a higher likelihood of smoking. Policy makers can target youths at high risk for smoking in industries that hire adolescents.