Tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure levels among Muslim community in Ireland

Background and objectives Smoking among ethnic minorities and immigrants continues to be a tobacco control policy issue in many industrialized nations. Ireland experienced recent immigration. We characterized tobacco use and secondhand smoke (SHS) levels among the Muslim community in Ireland considering the recent heterogeneous nature of the Irish population. Methods A validated questionnaire, with additional questions tailored to the Muslim community, was administered between July 2011 and January 2012, online (survey-monkey link, in English) and a self-administered print questionnaire survey (in Bengali, English and Arabic). The survey was distributed through a Muslim magazine and emailed to well-known Irish Muslim organizations. 270 online and 130 print questionnaire responses (field interviewer-administered) totalling 400 respondents were collected. Both descriptive and chi-square tests of proportions were performed using SPSS (v 18.0). Results Age-adjusted current tobacco users was 21.9% (28% men and 10% women); 4.3% consumed smokeless products. 27% in 26-45 years of age were current tobacco users; surprisingly 25% in higher educated individuals used tobacco compared to 18% with lower levels of education. 25.3% are former tobacco users. 14.3% of the recent migrants ( Conclusion Muslim men in Ireland from many different nations have smoking rates similar to Irish men, Muslin women smoke less than Irish women. SHS exposure was high.