Description:
Tobacco smoking is on the rise in the Eastern Mediterranean region. In light of limited surveillance of smoking in the region, a team of researchers launched a project titled “The Eastern Mediterranean Consortium on the Economics of Waterpipe Tobacco Smoking (ECON-WTS)”. Nationally representative in-person cross- sectional household surveys in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine were conducted between June and August 2019. Eligible respondents included males and females aged 18 years and older, residing in each of the countries as their primary place of residence, regardless of nationality. The data set includes:
1- Sociodemographic data (age, gender, employment, marital status, education level, nationality, employment status, household and individual income, decision making for daily and large household purchases)
2- Any tobacco smoking data (use of any tobacco products, frequency of use of any tobacco products)
3- Regular cigarette smoking data (ever smoking, currently smoking, potentially smoking, quantity and price of cigarettes purchased recently, brand names, thinking about quitting smoking, attempting to quit smoking)
4- Arguileh smoking data (ever smoking, currently smoking, potentially smoking, flavor of arguileh mostly smoked, quantity and price of arguileh heads purchased recently and one year ago, brand names, quantity and price of arguileh heads smoked at a restuarant recently and one year ago, quantity and price of arguileh heads purchased through home delivery service recently and one year ago, thinking about quitting smoking, attempting to quit smoking, attitudes about women smoking arguileh)
5- Discrete choice experiment data: 8 hypothetical choice scenarios about buying tobacco were presented, the only difference between the scenarios is the price of the tobacco products. the scenarios are as follows:
a. Premium cigarettes like Marlboro, Davidoff, and Gitanes
b. Discount cigarettes like Byblos, Cedars, and Maestro
c. Premium mouassal arguileh tobacco (250 g) like Al Fakher, Nakhla, and Mazaya
d. Discount mouassal arguileh tobacco (250 g) like Ya layl, Al Tamayoz
e. Ajami arguileh tobacco (250 g) like Al Zaeem, Al Bacha, and Tombac Asfahani
f. Home-delivery of prepared arguileh
g. Baladi/sha’bi arguileh cafes
h. Fancy arguileh cafes
Each of the 8 product categories had its own price, and the prices changed in each scenario. Participants were asked to imagine themselves buying their needs of arguileh and cigarette smoking products as they would typically in real life, and report how many items they would buy. They had the option to choose to buy 1 or more items from some types and none (i.e. 0) from others. They had the option choose to buy nothing at all, in which case the answer was 0 for all 8 tobacco products.