Temporal Patterns of Cigarette Smoking and Its Associated Covariates: a Multilevel Longitudinal Data Analysis

Citation

Adzrago, David; Kavi, Lucy; Ezeugoh, Rosemary I.; & Osafo-Darko, Benedicta (2022). Temporal Patterns of Cigarette Smoking and Its Associated Covariates: a Multilevel Longitudinal Data Analysis. Global Social Welfare.

Abstract

Background: Understanding differences in cigarette smoking patterns such as the frequency between-person and within-person is essential for tailored tobacco health education interventions. Previous studies, however, mostly limited analysis to computation of cigarette smoking frequency and its correlates. This article used multilevel models to examine between-person and within-person variations in cigarette smoking patterns over a 13-year period.
Methods: We merged the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health public-use data waves 1–4 into one longitudinal dataset for use in this study. Our analysis was based on the past-month’s average number of cigarette smoked per day. We used linear mixed model approach to fit multilevel models.
Results: The average number of cigarette smoked per day (CPD) among the sample at baseline/wave 1 was 6.92 (SD = 8.18). Time of observation in years (β = 0.455 (p < .001), age (β = 0.355, p < .001), past-year alcohol use frequency (β = −0.329, p < .001), and illicit drug use (β = 1.128, p < .001) were associated with average number of CPD. There were significant variations in the average number of CPD between-person (β = 29.602, p < .001) and within-person (variance = 34.393, p < .001).
Conclusions: This study demonstrates that rate of change in average number of CPD over years among the study sample could be different between-adolescent and within-adolescent depending on other substance use and demographic factors. Hence, tailored tobacco use educational programs or interventions and policies targeting these adolescents could be designed according to between-adolescent and within-adolescent differences in the average number of CPD trajectories.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-021-00220-9

Keyword(s)

Cigarette smoking

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

Global Social Welfare

Author(s)

Adzrago, David
Kavi, Lucy
Ezeugoh, Rosemary I.
Osafo-Darko, Benedicta

Year Published

2022

Edition

January 29, 2022

ISSN/ISBN

2196-8799

DOI

10.1007/s40609-021-00220-9

Reference ID

9617