Cigarette Smoking and Its Financial Burden among Iranian Households: Evidence from Household Income and Expenditures Survey

Background: the financial burden of cigarette smoking on households’ budget is not welldocumented in iran. we aimed to identify the determinants of cigarette consumption and itsfinancial burden among households in iran.study design: a cross-sectional study.methods: a total of 39,864 iranian’s households from 31 provinces were included in the analysis.data on sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics (age, sex, household size, educationlevel, employment status, income and wealth index), living area, number of cigarettes smoked andcigarette expenditures for households were extracted from the 2016 household income andexpenditures survey (hies). tobit model was used to identify the determinants of cigarettesmoking frequency and expenditures among iranian households.results: the average number of cigarettes smoked and cigarettes expenditures by all householdmembers was 85.25 cigarettes and us$ 2.64 per month. living in urban areas, wealth index ofhouseholds, household income, household size and low educational attainment of householdmembers were positively associated with frequency and expenditures of cigarette smoking. resultsalso indicated increasing patterns in the number of cigarettes smoked and cigarettes expendituresfrom east to west of the country. east azerbaijan, hamadan, markazi and chaharmahal va bakhtiariprovinces had higher cigarette smoking frequency and expenditures in iran.conclusions: tobacco control interventions in iran should focus more on households living inurban areas and low-educated households. as the frequency of cigarette smoking was higher inthe western region of iran, comprehensive tobacco control policies should be adopted in westernprovinces.