ADULT MORTALITY DIFFERENTIALS ASSOCIATED WITH CIGARETTE-SMOKING IN THE USA

Although cigarette smoking has been extensively researched, surprising little knowledge has been produced by demographers using demographic perspectives and techniques. Thus, this paper contributes to the liter ature by extending a demographic framework to an important behavior fo r mortality research: cigarette smoking. In earlier works, the authors used nationally-repnsentative data to show that cause of death patter ns varied by smoking status and that multiple causes of death characte rized smokers moreso than non-smokers. The present work extends previo us analysis by estimating smoking status mortality differentials by un derlying and multiple causes of death and by age and sex. Data from th e 1986 National Mortality Followback Survey are related to data from t he 1985 and 1987 National Health Interview Survey supplements to asses s the smoking-related mortality differentials. We find that cigarette smoking is associated with higher mortality for all population categor ies studied, that the smoking mortality differentials vary across the different smoking status categories and by demographic group, and that the mortality differentials vary according to whether underlying caus e or multiple cause patterns of death are examined. Moreover, the mult iple cause analysis highlights otherwise obscured smoking-mortality re lations and points to the importance of respiratory diseases and cance rs other than lung cancer for cigarette smoking research.