International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Article Prevalence of Smoking among Men in Ethiopia and Kenya: A Cross-Sectional Study Shangfeng Tang 1, Ghose Bishwajit 1,2,* ID , Tegene Regassa Luba 1,3 and Sanni Yaya 2 ID 1 School of Medicine and Health Management, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China;
[email protected] (S.T.);
[email protected] (T.R.L.) 2 Faculty of Social Sciences, School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada;
[email protected] 3 Federal Ministry of Health, Addis Ababa 8744, Ethiopia * Correspondence:
[email protected] Received: 8 May 2018; Accepted: 9 June 2018; Published: 11 June 2018 Abstract: While tobacco use remains the largest single cause of premature death in the industrialized countries, low-and-middle income countries are also experiencing a rising burden of the tobacco epidemic and are making various programmatic efforts to tackle the issue. Evidence-based policy making is critical to the long-term success of tobacco intervention programs and is reliant on regular monitoring of the trends and prevalence rates of tobacco use though population-based surveys, which are sparse for countries in eastern Africa. Therefore, in the present study we aimed to (1) estimate the trends in the prevalence of self-reported smoking status; and (2) explore the sociodemographic factors associated with smoking among adult men in Ethiopia and Kenya. Methods: Subjects were 26,919 adult men aged between 15 and 59 years from Ethiopia and Kenya. Nationally representative cross-sectional data on self-reported smoking and relevant sociodemographic indicators were collected from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) conducted in these two countries.