Marginal effects of determinants of smoking participation among young adults in Kenya: A by gender logistic regression analysis

Smoking causes a huge health and economic burden to society; this effect is even more pronounced for a developing country like Kenya. Despite the fact that tobacco use is preventable, the number of tobacco related deaths in Kenya is still a health challenge. Every year, more than 6,000 Kenyans die of tobacco induced diseases, while approximately 220,000 children and almost 2.7 million adults continue to smoke each day. Objectively, this study focused on the analysis of marginal effects of determinants of smoking participation among young adults in Kenya. It employed data from Kenya GATS 2014. Specifically, Logistic regression analysis was done on both young male and female adults smoking participation. The study revealed cigarette prices had a marginally and reducing significant effect on the likelihood of young male (β= -0.00383, ρ< 0.001) and female (β= -0.00003, ρ< 0.050) adults participation in smoking while tax on cigarette, evidently, had a significant (ρ< 0.001) and reducing marginal (β= -0.1198) effect on the young male decision to smoke as compared to young female decision to smoke. Education also had a significant and decreasing marginal influence on the tendency of young male (β= -0.03986, ρ< 0.001) and female (β= -0.00003, ρ< 0.050) adults decision to smoke. Employed young adults showed to have a declining and significant (ρ< 0.000) marginal effect on their smoking participation. Therefore, price and tax on cigarette are very effective measures in reducing smoking participation among young male and female adults in Kenya.