| Summary: | Introduction
Singapore, a city-state with a multi-ethnic Asian population, has one
of the world’s largest market shares for cigarettes with added flavors, such as
menthol and fruit, which increase the appeal of smoking. Little is known on the
sociodemographic or smoking-related traits associated with flavored cigarette use
in the Asian context.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in January–March 2020 of 1123
Singaporean adult (aged 21–69 years) current smokers using a self-completed
online or postal questionnaire. We used descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses
to compare the answers of flavored and non-flavored cigarette users and fitted a
multivariate logistic regression model to identify correlates of flavored cigarette
use.
Results
Of the respondents, 85.2% reported ever use and 52.7% of respondents
with a regular brand reported current use of flavored cigarettes. Older age 40–49
years (AOR= 0.63) age ≥50 years (AOR=0.60), Indian ethnicity (AOR=0.39), and
a moderate (AOR=0.57) or high (AOR=0.34) dependence level were correlated
with non-flavored cigarette use, while female gender (AOR=2.53) and a later
initiation age (16–20 years: AOR=1.72; age ≥21 years: AOR=2.19) were correlated
with flavored cigarette use.
Conclusions
Consistent with findings from other countries, flavored cigarette use in
Singapore is associated with being younger in age, female, of a certain ethnicity
(Malay or Chinese), and having a lower nicotine dependence level.
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