Religious involvement and tobacco use in mainland China: a preliminary study

Background: Cigarette smoking causes serious health, economic, and social problems throughout the world. Religious involvement is known to be an important predictor of health behaviors and substance use. The present study examines the correlation between religious involvements and tobacco use, and explores connections between religiosity and tobacco use in Muslims and non-Muslims in Western China. Methods: Data were examined from a representative sample of 2,770 community-dwelling adults in the province of Ningxia located in Western China. Self-report smoking, past smoking, religious attendance and the importance of religious in daily life were measured. The WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to diagnose tobacco use disorders. Three separate logistic regression models were used to examine correlations between religious involvement and smoking status. Results: In the overall sample, religious attendance was inversely associated with current smoking (p < 0.001), as was importance of religion (p < 0.05). Current smoking was also less common in those categorized as high on religious involvement. No association, however, was found between religious involvement and either past smoking or tobacco use disorders. In Muslims, both religion attendance and high religiosity were inversely associated with current smoking (p < 0.001), although no association was found in non-Muslims. Conclusions: Religious involvement is inversely related to current smoking in Western China, although this association depends on religious affiliation.