SMOKING, PERSONALITY AND THE GENDER-GAP

The study is based on Eysenck's thesis about the synergistic effects o f smoking and personality on health. The purpose was to apply it to ex plain gender differences in the incidence of smoking-related disease a nd mortality. Our hypothesis was that women were less susceptible to t he noxious effects of smoking because of their specific personality di spositions. There were 96 healthy adult subjects (37 men, 59 women) in cluding 48 smokers and 48 nonsmokers. The following questionnaires wer e administered in the framework of a routine health check-up: the neur oticism scale, stress reaction scale, the Strelau Temperament Inventor y, the Life Events Survey, the Personal Problems Questionnaire, the Pr ofile of Mood States, the Positive Emotions Check List and the Cogniti ve Orientation of Health questionnaire. Information about white blood cell count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate was available. Two-way a nalyses of variance showed effects due to gender or to smoking but mai nly interactive effects indicating that women had health-promoting and disease-suppressing characteristics, notably: low scores on inhibitio n, low number of life events, low number of negative life events and h igh number of positive life events, low number of problems especially in work, family and interpersonal relations, low scores on depression, anger and anxiety, and high scores on satisfaction. It is suggested t hat these characteristics contribute to the lower susceptibility of wo men to smoking-dependent diseases.