BackgroundThe determination of smoking prevalence and its associated factors among the elderly could provide evidence-based findings to guide the planning and implementation of policy in order to will help in reducing the morbidity and mortality of smoking-related diseases, thus increase their quality of life. This paper describes the rate of smoking and identifies the factor(s) associated with smoking among the elderly in Malaysia.MethodsA representative sample of 2674 respondents was obtained via a two-stage sampling method in proportion to population size. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a set of standardized validated questionnaire. Data was weighted by taking into consideration the complex sampling design and non-response rate prior to data analysis. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression were used to determine the factor/s associated with smoking.ResultsThe prevalence of non-smokers, ex-smokers and current smokers among Malaysians aged 60 years and above were 36.3 % (95 % CI = 32.7–39.8), 24.4 % (95 % CI = 21.2–27.5) and 11.9 % (95 % CI = 9.5–14.3), respectively. Current smokers were significantly more prevalent in men (28.1 %) than in women (2.9 %), but the prevalence declined with advancing age, higher educational attainment, and among respondents with known diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. Multivariable analysis revealed that males (aOR, 18.6, 95 % CI 10.9-31.9) and other Bumiputras (aOR 2.58, 95 % CI 1.29-5.15) were more likely to smoke. in addition, elderly with lower educational attainment (aOR, 1.70, 95 % CI 1.24-7.41) and those without/unknown hypertension also reported higher likelihood to be current smokers (aOR 1.98, 95 % CI 1.35-2.83). However, there were no significant associations between respondents with no/unknown diabetes or hypercholesterolemia with smoking.ConclusionsIn short, smoking is common among elderly men in Malaysia. Therefore, intervention programs should integrate the present findings to reduce the smoking rate and increase the smoking cessation rate among the elderly in Malaysia and subsequently to reduce the burden of smoking-related disease.

TwinsUK is a population-based study which consists of 14,575 adult twins at present (55% monozygotic and 43% dizygotic) who are between 18 to 101 years of age from around the United Kingdom (UK). In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the resulting UK ‘lockdown’ restrictions, our team developed the TwinsUK COVID-19 personal experience (CoPE) questionnaire. To date the CoPE questionnaire has been implemented three times, once during the first lockdown (April-May 2020), once as the restrictions eased (July-August 2020) and another when we entered the second wave of the pandemic and stricter restrictions were put into place (October-November 2020). This data note details the sample characteristics, and response rates of the data collected during the initial lockdown phase (wave 1) using the CoPE questionnaire. This questionnaire was designed to capture a variety of social, behavioural, psychological, environmental and health factors. It includes both measures that have been collected previously in TwinsUK as well as new measures. This data can be combined with pre-pandemic TwinsUK data and biological and genetic data. TwinsUK will also soon be complemented with the availability of linked health records. All TwinsUK data is available upon request and details are provided on how to access the data below.

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