The role of education for current, former and never-smoking among non-western immigrants in Norway. Does the pattern fit the model of the cigarette epidemic?

Abstract

Objectives. The aim was (1) to investigate the association between education and smoking status (current, former and never-smoking) among non-western immigrants in Norway and (2) examine if these associations fit the pattern predicted by the model of the cigarette epidemic.Design. Data came from the Oslo Health Study and the Oslo Immigrant Health study (2000–2002). The first included all Oslo citizens from seven selected birth cohorts. The second included all Oslo citizens born in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. 14,768 respondents answered questions on smoking, education and relevant background variables (over-all response rate 43.3%). Two gender specific multinomial logistic regression models with smoking status [current, former or never-smoker (reference)] as dependent variable were computed and predicted probabilities of smoking status among groups with different levels of education were calculated.Results. Smoking prevalence among men ranged from 19% among Sri Lankans to 56% among Turks. Compared to the smoking prevalence among Norwegian men (27%), smoking was widespread among Iranians (42%) and Vietnamese (36%). Higher education was associated with lower probability of current smoking among all male immigrant groups except Sri Lankans. Never having smoked was positively associated with education among Pakistani and Norwegian men. Among women, < 5% smoked among Pakistanis, Vietnamese and Sri Lankans. Smoking prevalence among Turkish (28%) and Iranian (23%) women were comparable to Norwegian women (30%). The probability of smoking among Turkish and Iranian women with secondary education was higher than for other levels of education. The probability of being a never-smoker was high among Turkish and Iranian women with primary education.Conclusions. High smoking prevalence among Turkish and Iranian men highlights the importance of addressing smoking behaviour in subgroups of the general population. Smoking was almost non-existent among Pakistani, Vietnamese and Sri Lankan women and indicates strong persistent social norms against smoking.

Self-reported health and associated factors among the immigrant populations in Norway

“…In our study, almost all women neither drank any alcohol nor smoked, while few men drank, and the prevalence of current smoking (19%) is lower than that previously reported for other immigrant groups (31-45%). Moreover, while the proportion having low physical activity was high compared to other immigrant groups (Vedoy 2013), half of the participants in this study still reported walking more than 30 min per day.…”

Prevalence of substance use among Russian, Somali and Kurdish migrants in Finland: A population-based study

“…Our findings regarding the larger proportion of daily smokers among Russian and Kurdish migrant men compared to the general population are in concordance with previous European studies and also with preliminary findings from the Maamu survey, reporting a larger proportion of daily smokers among migrants in comparison to the general population [12,18,20,21,[55][56][57], and in concordance with previous studies reporting differences between migrant groups under study [11,12,18,46,47,49,55,56,[58][59][60]. In contrast, previous migrant studies from Spain, Denmark and United States, have reported less smoking or similar smoking behaviour than the general population [15,16,50,60].…”

Ethnic differences in the incidence of cancer in Norway

“…In particular, diet may be healthier and the prevalence of obesity and alcohol consumption lower in immigrants than in some high‐income host populations before and immediately after arrival . On the other hand, self‐reported physical inactivity tend to be higher in immigrants compared to the host population in Norway, and smoking prevalence is very high in some immigrant groups …”

“…[37][38][39] On the other hand, self-reported physical inactivity tend to be higher in immigrants compared to the host population in Norway, 40 and smoking prevalence is very high in some immigrant groups. 41 After moving to the host country, immigrants go through various degrees of acculturation. Many factors, for example, socioeconomic status and occupation, can influence the acculturation process, 42 and affect cancer incidence.…”