Description
Arab Americans are one of the country's fastest growing immigrant populations. Arab American adult females emigrate from countries where smoking rates are two to three times higher than the United States national average smoking rate of 21.2%. Studies have shown that smoking rates in Arab Americans are among the highest in the United States. A popular form of tobacco use among Arab Americans, especially Arab American women, is waterpipe smoking. There is paucity of published research conducted on the health behaviors and tobacco use of Arab American women. The aim of this study is to determine predictors of waterpipe use level among Arab American women in San Diego, California. On the basis of previous studies with findings relevant to our research, we hypothesized that after controlling for demographic background factors, regular waterpipe smoking, versus occasional waterpipe smoking, is positively associated with smoking a waterpipe at home, smoking a waterpipe with one close friend, and initiating waterpipe smoking at an early age. Regular waterpipe smoking was defined as smoking a waterpipe at least once a month. This thesis conducts secondary analyses of existing data on 176 Arab American female waterpipe smokers to investigate contingencies theoretically responsible for their waterpipe smoking levels. Predictors were selected based on the Behavioral Ecological Model (BEM). Self-administered surveys were developed at the Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health (C-BEACH). The female participants of the study were between the ages of 18 to 80 years, with an average of 29 years of age (SD = 13). After controlling for demographic background factors, findings from the logistic regression analysis showed that regular waterpipe smoking was positively associated with smoking a waterpipe at home (P =.010), smoking a waterpipe with one close friend (P = .003), and initiating waterpipe smoking at an early age (P = .023). These predictors will help identify points of intervention to help design tailored health promotion, education, and prevention programs for waterpipe smoking among Arab American women.
