Journal Article

Social desirability and self-reported cigarette smoking among Lebanese adults

Youssef, Dalal, Hajj, Aline, Salameh, Pascale, Sacre, Hala, Sakr, Fouad, Chkayban, Georgia, Malhab, Sandrella Bou, Ghostin, Marguerite, Haddad, Chadia, Eid, Roy, Karam, David, Gerges, Clara, Hatem, Rana

2026

Overview

Background Cigarette smoking remains highly prevalent in Lebanon, posing a significant public health challenge. This study examined how social desirability and smoking unacceptability influence self-reported cigarette use and dependence among Lebanese adults, accounting for relevant sociodemographic factors. Method An online, cross-sectional study recruited 460 Lebanese adults between February and March 2025 through snowball sampling by disseminating the survey link on social media. Validated measures were used to assess the various concepts. Result Among 460 Lebanese adults (mean age 25.35±9.17 years, 70.2% female), multivariate logistic regression revealed that higher Socially Strategic Pragmatism was negatively associated with current smoking (ORa=0.94, p=0.019), while Independent Thinking showed a marginal positive association (ORa=1.05, p=0.085). School-level education (ORa=5.00, p=0.004) and unemployment (ORa=3.13, p=0.003) were associated with higher smoking odds. For cigarette dependence, Virtuous Perfectionism was negatively associated (ORa=0.99, p=0.009), and smoking social unacceptability showed a strong protective effect (ORa=0.80, p<0.001). Male gender (ORa=1.69, p<0.001), older age (ORa=1.02, p=0.002), and higher AUDIT scores (ORa=1.04, p<0.001) were positively associated with dependence, while unemployment (ORa=0.70, p=0.004) and not consuming alcohol while smoking (ORa=0.55, p=0.004) were negatively associated. Result This study demonstrated that social desirability bias was significantly associated with reported cigarette use and dependence patterns among Lebanese adults, in addition to sex, religion, social influence, and socioeconomic factors. Tobacco control interventions in Lebanon should incorporate culturally sensitive approaches that address social norms and use validated measures to account for social desirability bias, potentially ensuring more accurate prevalence estimates and more effective public health strategies.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,Nature Publishing Group,Springer
• Subject: Adults / Age / Alcohol use / Behavior / Bias / Cigarette smoking / Cigarettes / Education / Epidemiology / Ethics / Females / Gender / Health Sciences / Lebanon / Life Sciences / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Multiculturalism & pluralism / Public Health / Quantitative psychology / Questionnaires / Research Methodology / Santé publique et épidémiologie / Self-report / Smoking / Social desirability / Social networks / Social stigma / Socioeconomic factors / Socioeconomics / Statistical analysis / Statistics for Life Sciences / Stigma / Tobacco / Tobacco dependence / Water pipes