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Adult smokers' perception of the role of religion and religious leadership on smoking and association with quitting: A comparison between Thai Buddhists and Malaysian Muslims

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Yong, Hua-Hie, Hamann, Stephen L., Borland, Ron, Fong, Geoffrey T., Omar, Maizurah·2009·Social Science & Medicine
DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.07.042PMC PMC2775092
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Abstract

In recent years, attempts have been made to incorporate religion into tobacco control efforts, especially in countries like Malaysia and Thailand where religion is central to the lives of people. This paper is a prospective examination of the perceived relevance and role of religion and religious authorities in influencing smoking behaviour among Muslims in Malaysia and Buddhists in Thailand. Data were collected from 1482 Muslim Malaysian and 1971 Buddhist Thai adult smokers who completed wave 1 (early 2005) of the International Tobacco Control Southeast Asia Survey (ITC-SEA). Respondents were asked about the role of religion and religious leadership on smoking at Wave 1 and among those recontacted, quitting activity at Wave 2. Results revealed that over 90% of both religious groups reported that their religion guides their day-to-day behaviour at least sometimes, but Malaysian Muslims were more likely to report that this was always the case. The majority (79% Muslims and 88% Buddhists) of both groups believed that their religion discourages smoking. About 61% of the Muslims and 58% of the Buddhists reported that their religious leaders had encouraged them to quit before and a minority (30% and 26%, respectively) said they would be an influential source to motivate them to quit. Logistic regression models suggest that these religious factors had a clear independent association with making quitting attempts in both countries and this translated to success for Malaysian Muslims but not for the Thai Buddhists. Taken together, results from this study indicate that religion and religious authorities are both relevant and important drivers of quitting, but whether this is always enough to guarantee success is less clear. Religion can be a culturally relevant vehicle to complement other tobacco control efforts.

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  • Of the 83 methodologically most rigorous smoking studies, 75 (90%) reported inverse relationships with R/S involvement.

    “Of the 83 methodologically most rigorous studies, 75 (90%) reported inverse relationships with R/S involvement [213, 285–294].”

    From Religion, Spirituality, and Health: The Research and Clinical Implications (2012) · cites this paper as [287]

    The Results section (page unavailable) reports that some religious factors were associated with quit attempts or quitting success, so this paper can serve as an example of a study finding such a relationship. It does not review 83 studies or report that 75 (90%) found inverse relationships; those aggregate figures are not supported by this source. (LLM, conf=0.82)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. World Health Organization International workshop on Buddhism and tobacco control, 7-9 May 2002 7 February, 2007 http://www.who.int/tobacco/national_capacity/religion/en

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Authors
Yong, H.-H., Hamann, S. L., Borland, R., Fong, G. T., & Omar, M.
Affiliations
  • Cancer Council Victoria (AU)
  • Thai Health Promotion Foundation (TH)
  • University of Waterloo (CA)
  • Universiti Sains Malaysia (MY)
Corresponding author
Yong, Hua-Hie
ORCID
Venue
Social Science & Medicine
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2009-10
Volume
69
Issue
7
Pages
1025-1031
ISSN
0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.07.042
PMC
PMC2775092
OpenAlex
W1983140592
Cited by
120
References
17
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 43 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 8
FWCI
3.10
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
National Cancer Institute (P50CA111236, R01CA100362)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
  • Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Religion, Society, and Development
Keywords
religious leadership, smoking cessation, tobacco control, religiosity, Malaysia, Thailand
MeSH terms
Smoking Prevention, Adolescent, Adult, Buddhism, Clergy, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Female, Humans, Interviews as Topic, Islam, Malaysia, Male, Middle Aged, Prospective Studies, Religion, Role, Socioeconomic Factors, Thailand, Logistic Models, Smoking Cessation, Young Adult

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