DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIOECONOMIC LINKS TO CIGARETTE-SMOKING

This paper illuminates the demographic and socioeconomic factors assoc iated with smoking statuses. It employs the 1990 National Health Inter view Survey's Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Supplement and l ogistic regression to examine the covariates of smoking status among t he U.S. adult population. Polychotomous logistic regression, which pro vides an alternate way to examine smoking practices, simultaneously co nsiders multiple variables and their interactions, controls for other important covariates, produces predicted values and patterns, and allo ws multiple comparisons. By examining interactions, we have found that age displays distinct, often curvilinear, patterns with smoking; that compared to females, males have higher rates of cigarette consumption except at the youngest ages; that Anglos, especially Angle males, exh ibit high probabilities of cigarette consumption but also high probabi lities of being former smokers; that Black males exhibit high probabil ities of light smoking, but only at the older ages, and that they also exhibit high probabilities of being former light smokers; and that Me xican-American females are the least likely to currently smoke or to h ave ever smoked. By clearly elucidating the demographic and socioecono mic;variations in smoking, arguably the most salient marker of health behavior, we can better target programs and policies geared toward the reduction of smoking-related diseases and deaths.