| Summary: | Background
Smoking is declining, but in most countries lower
educated smoke more than higher educated. Our aim was to examine development
with these differences in a country with strict tobacco control policies,
Finland.
Methods
We used annual population-based random sample data of
25-64 year-olds from 1978-2016 (N=104,317). Response rate varied between 84% and
40% during the study period. We used relative education as a measure for
socioeconomic position. For each year education was stratified into tertiles, and
low and high educated were included in further analysis. The outcome variable
was daily smoking. Weights were used in order to enhance the population
representation. Prevalence figures and logistic regression analysis were
used.
Results
At the start of the study period, 40% of lower
educated men and 33% of higher educated men smoked. For women, the corresponding
proportions were 18% and 13%, respectively. Smoking decreased in each
educational group except lower educated women. Preliminary analyses suggest
that, compared with the time period before 2009, all population groups except lower
educated women were less likely to smoke after 2009. In the 2010s, educational
differences in smoking slightly declined both among women and men due to a more
prevalent decline in smoking among lower educated. In 2016 among men, 26% of
lower educated smoked, while 6% of higher educated smoked. Among women
corresponding proportions were 19% and 9%.
Conclusions
Smoking has declined both among lower and higher educated and socioeconomic differences diminished in the 2010s in Finland. However,
educational differences in smoking are still marked, which underlines the need
for further actions reducing the overall public impact of these differences. Further
analyses will test relative differences in smoking among socioeconomic groups
and careful sensitivity analyses will be conducted to validate the results.
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