Influence of Social Relationship and Culture on Smoking Behaviours among the Ethnic Minorities in Yunnan Province

Objective To explore the direct and indirect effect of family, friend, culture, and other personal factors on individuals' smoking behaviors.Me thods A total of 977 Han people, Yi people and Lisu people were recruited by multistage systematic sampling. A structured questionnaire and scale were used to collect data by face-to-face interviews. Data were analyzed by chi square test, rank sum test and structural equation model methods.Re s ults People whose family members were smokers ( standardized regression coefficient ( β=0.14) , or whose parents had neutral attitude on smoking (β= 0.11) , or who had smoking friends (β=0.07) , or who had strong willingness to smoke (β= 0.26) , or who had higher acculturation score to other ethnic groups (β=0.05) , or who were elder (β= 0.13) tended to have higher rate of current smoking While people who were females (β=-0.39) , or who belonged to ethnic minority groups (β=-0.08) , or who had higher annual family income (β=-0.06) had lower rate of current smoking. Age and gender not only affected current smoking status directly, but also affected it indirectly via family income, the number of family smoker, parent attitude on smoking, their willingness of smoking and the number of smoking friend.Conclus ion Family, friends, culture, age and gender affect smoking behavior comprehensively. Tobacco control should put more emphasis on crowed strategy and construction of supportive environment.