Dr. Hadii Mamudu, Professor for the Department of Health Services Management and Policy has co-authored an article in Nicotine & Tobacco Research. The article is titled “Secondhand smoke exposure inside the home among adults in eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 2012-2018.”
Lazarous Mbulo of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is lead author of the article. Daniel Owusu, alumnus of ETSU College of Public Health Doctor in Public Health program, is a co-author. Additional co-authors include individuals from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
Secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure causes diseases and death in adults and children. SHS is a mixture of mainstream tobacco smoke exhaled by a person smoking and side-stream smoke from the lighted end of a cigarette, pipe, cigar, or tobacco burning in a hookah. It contains toxic and cancer-causing agents or particulates that are harmful to humans. Evidence indicates that most SHS exposures occur at home and in workplace. Therefore, home is a major place where adults and children can be effectively protected from SHS. This study examined the magnitude of exposure at home and associated factors in eight sub-Saharan African countries.
The authors used the 2012–2018 Global Adult Tobacco Survey data for Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Uganda, to examine the magnitude of SHS exposure inside the home and associated factors among adults in eight sub-Saharan African countries. They computed prevalence estimates of self-reported monthly SHS exposure at home reported as anyone smoke inside their home daily, weekly or monthly. They calculated exposure at home prevalence and applied multivariable logistic regression models to identify related factors.
The authors found overall median prevalence of SHS exposure at home was 13.8% in the eight countries; ranging from 6.6% in Nigeria to 21.6% in Senegal. In multivariable analysis across the countries, exposure at home was significantly associated with living with a smoker, associated with lower education attainment, and lower wealth index. Overall, the findings of this study suggest the critical need to adopt smoke-free home rules to protect vulnerable nonsmokers from SHS exposure at home.