Family Structure and Men's Health Behaviour in Nigeria

Life expectancy at birth, health-adjusted life expectancy and adult mortality in Nigeria are lower for men than women. For instance, the probability that a fifteen-year old will die before age 60 (adult mortality rate) in 2011 for men was 393 per 1,000 people and 360 for women. Even though the economic well-being of most households in Nigeria depends largely on men little research attention has been paid to men’s health in relation to their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The current study examined the association between family structure and men’s health behaviour, and the mediating effect of their socioeconomic characteristics. Although health behaviours are not direct measures of health, they are among the very important factors that influence health. Data were obtained from 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, and the study population consisted of 8980 ever married men. Health behaviour was indicated by tobacco smoking (cigarette, pipe, chewing tobacco, using snuff). Family structure was measured by number of wives, number of unions, age at first union duration of union and number of living children. Measures of socioeconomic status were place of residence, highest level of education, household wealth index, and employment status Results of logistic regression models showed that all the family structure indicators except number of living children were significantly associated with tobacco smoking. Adjusting for socioeconomic characteristics slightly attenuated the effect size for most of the significant family structure variables, but did not change the direction of association. Contrary to the perspectives that marital union enhances health-promoting behaviour, marital union does not seem to promote healthy behaviour for men in this study, although longer marital duration increased the likelihood of health-promoting behaviour. This calls for more research on the association between intra-family relationships and men’s health behaviour in Nigeria.