The presence of social inequalities in tobacco-use has been fully recognized in the international literature. Even though cigarette and waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) are prevalent in the Arab region, the literature has not addressed the... more
The presence of social inequalities in tobacco-use has been fully recognized in the international literature. Even though cigarette and waterpipe tobacco smoking (WTS) are prevalent in the Arab region, the literature has not addressed the social determinants of the impending tobacco epidemic. This study examined the socioeconomic patterning of cigarette and WTS among Jordanian women. We analyzed pooled data from four waves of the Jordan Demographic and Health Surveys: 2002 (N = 5851); 2007 (N = 10 654); 2009 (N = 9879), and 2012 (N = 11 113). We specified logistic regression models to test the association between education and household wealth and the two outcome measures, cigarette and WTS, adjusting for other covariates. For each outcome, we ran time-unadjusted and time-adjusted logistic models. Cigarette smoking prevalence among Jordanian women remained almost constant (around 10%) between 2002 and 2012. WTS prevalence steadily increased from 4.1% in 2002 to 10.2% in 2012. Increa...
