Evaluating The Impact of Smoking Behavior on Cognitive Function Among Elderly in Indonesia

This study evaluates the impact of smoking behavior towards life satisfaction and multidimensional neurocognitive depreciation such as cognitive impairment and depression among the elderly in Indonesia. Using cross-sectional data from the Indonesia Longitudinal Aging Survey (ILAS), and the empirical analysis applies three distinct models: a Logit model and a Probit model to estimate the socioeconomic determinants of smoking, and a Propensity Score Matching (PSM) model to evaluate its impacts by addressing selection bias. Our results shows that the determinants analysis reveals that socioeconomic status drives tobacco use among the Indonesian elderly, with individuals in the highest income quintile exhibiting the highest probability of smoking. Conversely, higher education, health insurance coverage, religious participation, and preventive health behaviors significantly mitigate the propensity to smoke. The impact evaluation model shows that active smoking reduces life satisfaction by 3.5%. Furthermore, smoking increases the probability of cognitive impairment by 1.4% and clinical depression by 2.8%.