Determinants of Heavy Cigarette Smoking: Are There Differences in Men and Women? Results From the Population-Based MONICA/KORA Augsburg Surveys

Abstract

The present study revealed sex-specific differences in heavy smoking by age at smoking onset, which was not shown before so far. These findings should be further investigated and addressed in future prevention campaigns.

Determinants of heavy smoking: Results from the global adult tobacco survey in Poland (2009–2010)

“…NRTs increase the rate of quitting by 50-70%. Other types of medication were also found to increase effectiveness of therapy, but in Poland they [14]. However, in contrast to their findings, we observed association between being heavy smokers and early age at smoking onset in females.…”

“…We may only speculate that the dissimilarity might be associated with differences among countries in comprehensiveness and effectiveness of implemented tobacco control measures, such as e.g., implementation of country-specific interventions and polices in Germany with special focus on young girls [20]. In contrast to other observations, we did not find a connection of heavy smoking with economic factors [9,14,15]. But subjects that were not aware of the health risks of smoking were more likely to be smokers compared to those that were aware.…”

“…This difference can be explained by the fact that data were collected in different years and different criteria were adopted to describe heavy smokers. The recent study by Baumert et al shows similar results [14]. Moreover, our results are consistent with previous reports suggesting that, compared with lighter smokers, heavy-level smokers were less likely to represent younger age groups [9,14].…”

“…The recent study by Baumert et al shows similar results [14]. Moreover, our results are consistent with previous reports suggesting that, compared with lighter smokers, heavy-level smokers were less likely to represent younger age groups [9,14]. The highest rates of heavy smokers were mostly found in mid-age (30 years or older) subpopulations [9,15].…”

“…In our study, as well as in other surveys, heavy smoking was significantly more prevalent in men than women [9,14,15]. However, we noticed significantly higher rates of heavy smoking subjects compared to surveys from United States.…”