Socioeconomic Differences in Cigarette Smoking Among Sociodemographic Groups.

Bridgette E Garrett,Brandi N Martell,Brian A King,Ralph S Caraballo

doi:10.5888/pcd16.180553

Abstract

We examined variations in cigarette smoking by socioeconomic status (education and poverty status) in relation to population sociodemographic characteristics (age, race/ethnicity, region and sex). We analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of US adults by using combined data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2011–2014). Low socioeconomic status was generally associated with increased cigarette smoking prevalence by age, race/ethnicity, and region, irrespective of sex. The only exceptions were for Asian and Hispanic women, where low educational attainment was not associated with a high prevalence of cigarette smoking, and among Hispanic men and Asian women, where there was no association between poverty status and smoking. Efforts to reach smokers of low socioeconomic status by using proven tobacco control strategies could reduce disparities in cigarette smoking and smoking-related disease and death.

Highlights

We examined variations in cigarette smoking by socioeconomic status in relation to population sociodemographic characteristics
Low socioeconomic status was generally associated with increased cigarette smoking prevalence by age, race/ethnicity, and region, irrespective of sex
The only exceptions were for Asian and Hispanic women, where low educational attainment was not associated with a high prevalence of cigarette smoking, and among Hispanic men and Asian women, where there was no association between poverty status and smoking

Summary

Methods

We used data on cigarette smoking from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an annual household survey that collects data on substance use, including tobacco use, from a nationally representative sample of the US noninstitutionalized, civilian population aged 12 or older. The survey design, methods, and general parameters of NSDUH are described elsewhere [5]. For this analysis, we combined annual data from NSDUH survey years 2011 to 2014 to obtain sufficient sample sizes to calculate estimates of current cigarette smoking for the assessed sociodemographic and socioeconomic subgroups of adults aged 18 or older (N = 188,673) and adults aged 25 or older (N = 114,759). Low socioeconomic status was defined as having less than a high school

Results

Discussion

Conclusion