THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN VETERAN STATUS AND CIGARETTE-SMOKING BEHAVIORS

Although the prevalence of smoking has decreased since 1980 among acti ve duty military personnel, it remains higher than among the adult civ ilian population; among military veterans, the prevalence of smoking h as not been well described. The objectives of this study were to descr ibe patterns of cigarette smoking behaviors among United States vetera ns and nonveterans and to examine the association between military vet eran status and cigarette smoking. We analyzed data from a cross-secti onal survey from a national probability sample of the civilian, nonins titutionalized adult population (National Health Interview Survey supp lements). We estimated the prevalence of ever, current, and former smo king, as well as crude and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of each outcome measure among veterans and nonveterans, by gender. The prevalence of ever smoking was 74.2% (+/-0.7%) among veterans and 48.4% (+/-0.5%) am ong nonveterans; current smoking prevalence was 33.9% (+/-1.0%) among veterans and 27.7% (+/-0.5%) among nonveterans. Among those who had no t initiated smoking before the age of 18 years, veterans were more lik ely than nonveterans to report ever smoking (AOR = 1.8 for men and 1.9 for women) and current smoking (AOR = 1.9 for both men and women). Af ter statistical adjustment, no difference was seen in cessation behavi or. We concluded that the prevalence of ever and current smoking was h igher among U.S. military veterans. The association was the strongest among veterans who had not initiated smoking before the age of 18 year s. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that military ser vice is a risk factor for cigarette smoking, and they support the mili tary's current prevention and cessation efforts.