Intermittent and daily smokers: two different socioeconomic patterns, and diverging influence of social participation

Objective-To investigate socioeconomic differences in intermittent and dail y smoking, and to assess the association between social participation and t hese two smoking behaviours. Design/setting/participants/ measurements-A population of 11 837 individual s interviewed in 1992-94, aged 45-64 years, was investigated in this cross sectional study. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to asses s socioeconomic differences in daily and intermittent smoking, adjusting fo r age, country of origin, previous/current diseases, and marital status. Fi nally, social participation as a measure of social capital was introduced i n the multivariate model. Results-When unskilled manual workers were compared to high level non-manua l employees, odds ratios of 2.3 (95% confidence interval (Cl) 1.7 to 3.0) f or men and 1.9 (95% Cl 1.4 to 2.5) for women were found in regard to daily smoking, but odd ratios of only 0.7 (95% Cl 0.4 to 1.2) for men and 1.3 (95 % Cl 0.7 to 2.4) for women were found in regard to intermittent smoking. A decrease in the daily smoking odds ratios was found when social participati on was introduced in the model, while the odds ratios regarding intermitten t smoking were unaffected. Conclusions-There were no socioeconomic differences in intermittent smoking and no association with social participation, a result that contrasts shar ply with the patterns of daily smoking. These findings have important impli cations for the discussion concerning social capital and preventive measure s.