Gender differences in cigarette consumption in Turkey: evidence from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey.

Objective: The aim of this study is to examine the potential factors associated with both smoking participation and the level of cigarette consumption in Turkey from a gender perspective, the understanding of which are crucial to the formulation and implementation of anti-smoking policies.

Methods: The Global Adult Tobacco Survey for 2008 is used in the analysis. Since the dependent variable, the number of cigarettes smoked per day, consists of nonnegative integer values, Negative Binomial and Zero-inflated Negative Binomial models are used as an estimation methodology. The zero-inflated model allows the interpretation of smoking propensity and smoking intensity behaviours separately.

Results: The main findings of this study are twofold. First, the factors affecting the smoking behaviour of males and females are different. Second, there are also differences between the factors affecting the decisions of whether to smoke and how much to smoke for both genders. Cigarette prices, for example, affect the level of cigarette consumption of females but not of males whereas pro-cigarette marketing affects the decision of how much to smoke for males with no effect on female smoking.

Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of gender differences in cigarette consumption. Overall, education programs, cigarette taxation and tobacco advertising bans have different effects on each gender whereas social interaction is important for cigarette smoking behaviour of both genders. The anti-smoking policies can be more effective if policy makers take into account gender differences in both smoking propensity and intensity.