Abstract
Background and aimsCigarette smoking takes place within a cultural and social context. Political views and practices are an important part of that context. To gain a better understanding of smoking, it may be helpful to understand its association with voting patterns as an expression of the political views and practices of the population who smoke. This study aimed to assess the association between cigarette smoking and voting intentions and to examine how far any association can be explained by sociodemographic factors and alcohol use.MethodsPooled monthly representative repeat cross-sectional household surveys of adults (16+) in England (N = 55,482) between 2015 and 2020 were used to assess the association between cigarette smoking status and voting intentions, and whether this was accounted for by age, occupational grade, gender, region and alcohol use. Voting intention was measured by asking ‘How would you vote if there were a General Election tomorrow?’ Respondents chose from a list of the major English political parties or indicated their intention not to vote.ResultsIn adjusted multinomial regression, compared with intending to vote Conservative (majority party of government during the period), being undecided (aOR1.22 [1.13-1.33] <0.001), intending to vote Labour (aOR1.27 [1.16-1.36] <0.001), to vote “Other” (aOR1.54 [1.37-1.72] <0.001), or not to vote (aOR1.93 [1.77-2.11] <0.001) was associated with higher odds of current relative to never smoking rates. Intending to vote for the Liberal Democrats was associated with a significant lower odds of current smoking prevalence (aOR0.80 [0.70-0.91] <0.001) compared with intending to vote Conservative.ConclusionsControlling for a range of other factors, current as compared with never-smokers appear more likely to intend not to vote, to be undecided, to vote for Labour or a non-mainstream party, and less likely to vote for the Liberal Democrats, compared with the Conservative party.
Highlights
Poor general health, wealth inequality and higher mortality are all negatively associated with voter turnout [1,2,3]
Intending to vote for the Liberal Democrats was associated with a significant lower odds of current smoking prevalence compared with intending to vote Conservative
Given the substantial health burden and inequalities caused by smoking [6], and the pivotal role that political parties have in smoking prevention measures and health and community spending, it is important to understand how sociodemographic characteristics, smoking behaviours and voting intentions are linked
Summary
Wealth inequality and higher mortality are all negatively associated with voter turnout [1,2,3]. Because smoking is more prevalent within poorer communities, by not voting, it is possible smokers from the most disadvantaged communities are underrepresented in elections. This is a disadvantage because communities with higher numbers of smokers are affected by the spending priorities of political parties since these determine resources for tobacco control activities. The purpose of this study is to examine the association of smoking status, and sociodemographic characteristics, with voting intentions in England between 2015 and 2020. This study aimed to assess the association between cigarette smoking and voting intentions and to examine how far any association can be explained by sociodemographic factors and alcohol use
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