Effect of Religious Beliefs on the Smoking Behaviour of University Students: Quantitative Findings From Malaysia

Abstract

The Malaysian official Islamic authorities have issued a "fatwa" (Islamic ruling) regarding smoking practice which prohibits Muslims from smoking because of its potential harm to health. Since the prevalence of smoking among Malaysian students is high, this study was designed to explore the perceptions and opinions of Malaysian Muslim students towards smoking in International Islamic University of Malaysia. A prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted among School of Science students in International Islamic University Malaysia. Convenience sampling approach was used to recruit 323 students based on sample size calculation. A content- and face-validated questionnaire was used to collect the data from the participants. Non-smokers highly supported the fatwa on smoking forbiddance than smokers (94 vs 64.3 %, p = 0.001). A significant proportion of non-smokers believed that Islam prohibits smoking because of its potential harm (94.9 vs 71.4 %, p = 0.001). Majority of smokers agreed that addiction is the main barrier towards smoking cessation (78.6 vs 61.5 %, p = 0.019). The results showed positive influences of Islamic beliefs on the non-smokers. Further studies are required to validate these findings by surveying other universities of Malaysia.

Tobacco Use Among the Adult Muslim Population in Indonesia: A Preliminary Study on Religion, Cultural, and Socioeconomic Factors

“…Unlike alcohol consumption, there is no direct mention of tobacco use in the Islamic primary sources of law, and not until the 20th-century Muslim scholars began to declare edicts discouraging Muslims from smoking. A few studies among small Muslim samples in Malaysia suggest that, while Muslims appear to be aware of the edicts, only a small proportion would follow the rule and there is a limited role of religious belief in smoking cessation (Elkalmi et al, 2016; Yong et al, 2009).…”

“…However, research examining tobacco use in the Muslim-majority countries is still limited. The available studies on the role of religion on smoking behaviors are limited mostly to university students in Malaysia (Elkalmi, Alkoudmani, Elsayed, Ahmad, & Khan, 2016) and to smoking and smoking cessation among adult Thai Buddhist and Malaysian Muslims (Yong, Hamann, Borland, Fong, & Omar, 2009).…”

Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Risk Factors of Noncommunicable Diseases Among Women of Reproductive Age in Sub-saharan Africa: A Multi-Country Analysis of Survey Data

“…We notably found a low percentage of women who use tobacco products and the result is consistent with the report from a previous study ( 37 ). The low prevalence of tobacco use could be due to cultural sensitivity and religious barriers, such that in several religious beliefs and in African context, women's use of tobacco products is highly considered as improper behavior and remains highly unacceptable ( 38 , 39 ). However, there could be more women who use tobacco products especially smokeless tobacco, but due to the fear of shame or ignorance may regard smoking as the only method of tobacco use and hence misreport their true status.…”

Smoking and Religion: Untangling Associations Using English Survey Data

“…In terms of tobacco control, our results raise issues for faith-based health interventions. Evidence primarily from the USA but also from the Far East and Muslim countries has been hopeful but equivocal about the effectiveness of such measures (Campbell et al 2007; Schoenberg et al 2016; Ismail et al 2016; Byron et al 2015; Elkalmi et al 2016). Our research points to the need for faith-based interventions to move beyond baseline prevalences to understand how religion interacts with other factors that may be more important in driving smoking behaviour, notably socio-economic disadvantage and ethnicity.…”