THE SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC PATTERN OF TOBACCO CESSATION IN THE 1980S - RESULTS FROM A PANEL STUDY OF LIVING CONDITION SURVEYS IN SWEDEN

Study objectives - To analyse the factors that determined whether or n ot people were successful in quitting tobacco during the 1980s in Swed en. Design - A logistic regression model was used for the analyses and included: education, marital status, socioeconomic group, social netw ork, physical activities, cigarette consumption, and years spent smoki ng as independent variables. Men and women were analysed separately fo r smoking. A specific univariate analysis was also performed for men w ho used snuff. Setting - Sweden. Participants - A panel of 5104 random ised people aged 16-84 years was interviewed in 1980-81 and followed u p in 1988-89 in the survey of living conditions undertaken by Statisti cs Sweden. The participation rate was 86%. The panel included 1546 men and women who were daily smokers. There were 418 daily users of snuff among the men, and 129 men both smoked and used snuff. Main results - Together 26% of women and 23% of men had quit smoking. Five per cent in both groups were new smokers. Among men, 26% had quit using snuff a nd 5% had begun smoking. New snuff users among men were 5%. In the mul tivariate analysis, unmarried men kept smoking at significantly higher rates (OR 2.1; 95% CI 1.2,3.6), as did those men who smoked 11-20 cig arettes/day (OR 2.2; 95% CI 1.5, 3.4), or more than 20 cigarettes/day (OR 2.8; 95% CI 1.4,5.7). Among women, smoking 11-20 cigarettes/day wa s also a significant factor (OR 3.3; 95% CI 2.1,5.0). Men and women ag ed 25-44 were significantly more Likely to continue smoking (OR = 2.1; 95% CI 1.1,3.7, and 2.2; 95% CI 1.2,4.4) as were those who had smoked for 20 years or more (OR 4.7; 95% CI 2.0,10.8 and OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.1, 5.5, respectively). For women, low education (up to grade 9) was also a significant factor (OR = 2.5; 95% CI 1.2,5.1). Among men who had qui t using snuff we did not find any values of significance. Conclusions - One in four smokers had quit during the 1980s and a few started smok ing (5%). Some men quit smoking and started using snuff instead. For b oth sexes, the daily consumption of cigarettes, years spent smoking, a nd age were the most important determinants of successful quitting. In men, being married/cohabiting was an important factor as was higher e ducation in women.