Objectives To assess the determinants of smoking
behaviour and to estimate the impact of tobacco
consumption on the consumption of other commodities
by Cambodian households.
Methods To assess the determinants of smoking in
Cambodia, the authors used a logistic regression model
that estimated the probability of an individual smoking,
given a set of socioeconomic and demographic
characteristics. A Seemingly Unrelated Regression
method was used to assess the impact of tobacco
consumption on the consumption of other commodities.
The nationally representative 2004 Cambodia SocioEconomic
Survey, collected by the National Institute of
Statistics of the Ministry of Planning in Cambodia, was
used for the analysis.
Results Smoking in Cambodia is influenced by a variety
of factors such as gender, marital status, age, ethnicity,
literacy, health status and perceptions about the health
consequences of tobacco use. The authors found that
spending on tobacco crowds out expenditures on
education and clothing at the national level and
expenditures on food for low- and middle-income
households.
Conclusions The first analysis of the study showed that
increased education is associated with lower daily
smoking, and the second analysis revealed that
expenditures on tobacco crowds out expenditures on
education. Combining these two results points to
a vicious circle where low education means higher
likelihood of smoking, which in turn results in lower
spending on education. Such budget allocation clearly
has negative intergenerational consequences.