• Noorzurani Robson, Alyson Bond, and Kim Wolff.
• University Malaya, Faculty of Medicine, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. noorzurani@um.edu.my
• Prev Med. 2013 Jan 1; 57 Suppl: S8-10.

ObjectivesThere is evidence that smoking behaviour differs by ethnicity. This study aims to compare smoking behaviour characteristics between Caucasian and Malay smokers.MethodsA cross sectional survey, involving 175 smokers attending smoking cessation clinics at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom and University Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia between May 2005 and February 2007. Data on demographics, smoking history, nicotine dependence and smoking behaviour were collected.ResultsAll participants were males, mean age 30.7 ± 10.3 years. Caucasians initiated smoking significantly earlier (mean age 14.8 ± 2.8 years) (p = 0.001) and smoked regularly significantly earlier (mean age 17.3 ± 3.5) (p = 0.003) than Malays (mean starting age 16.9 ± 4.4 years and mean age regular use 19.5 ± 4.5 years), respectively. Caucasians smoked less for social integration than Malays (p = 0.03) but smoked more for regulation of negative affect than Malays (p = 0.008) and smoked more for hedonism than Malays (p < 0.001).ConclusionMalays smoke as a means of socially integrating. This has important public health implications. Social reasons and the social environment play a role in smoking uptake, smoking maintenance and smoking cessation and this should be borne in mind for strategies planning to promote smoking cessation.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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