Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2006 Jun;15 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):iii65-70.
doi: 10.1136/tc.2005.013276.

Socioeconomic and country variations in knowledge of health risks of tobacco smoking and toxic constituents of smoke: results from the 2002 International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey

M Siahpush  1 , A McNeill, D Hammond, G T Fong
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Socioeconomic and country variations in knowledge of health risks of tobacco smoking and toxic constituents of smoke: results from the 2002 International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey

M Siahpush et al. Tob Control. 2006 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Socioeconomic status is strongly associated with smoking prevalence and social class differences contribute substantially to social inequalities in mortality. This research investigated socioeconomic and country variations in smokers' knowledge that smoking causes heart disease, stroke, impotence and lung cancer, that smoke contains cyanide, mercury, arsenic and carbon monoxide, and whether nicotine causes most of the cancer.

Methods: Data were from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey, a cohort survey of over 9000 adult smokers from four countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Data were collected via telephone interviews in 2002.

Results: Higher education and income were associated with higher awareness. For example, the odds of knowing that smoking causes heart disease, stroke and lung cancer were respectively 71%, 34% and 83% larger for respondents with high versus low income. The odds of knowing that smoke contains cyanide, mercury, arsenic and carbon monoxide were respectively 66%, 26%, 44% and 108% larger for respondents with a university degree than those with a high school diploma or lower level of education. Results also revealed that awareness of harms of smoking was generally the highest in Canada and the lowest in the UK.

Conclusions: Lower socioeconomic status was associated with lower awareness of the harms of smoking and misunderstanding around nicotine. There is a need to improve knowledge of the dangers of smoking among the disadvantaged segments of the population.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: none declared

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Jarvis M J, Wardle J. Social patterning of individual health behaviours: the case of cigarette smoking. In: Marmot M, Wilkinson RG, eds. Social determinants of health. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999
    1. Siahpush M. Socioeconomic status and tobacco expenditure among Australian households: results from the 1998–99 Household Expenditure Survey. J Epidemiol Community Health 200357798–801. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hymowitz N, Cummings K M, Hyland A.et al Predictors of smoking cessation in a cohort of adult smokers followed for five years. Tob Control 19976(suppl 2)s57–s62. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shohaimi S, Luben R, Wareham N.et al Residential area deprivation predicts smoking habit independently of individual educational level and occupational social class. A cross sectional study in the Norfolk cohort of the European Investigation into Cancer (EPIC‐Norfolk). J Epidemiol Community Health 200357270–276. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fernandez E, Schiaffino. Garcia M.et al Widening social inequalities in smoking cessation. J Epidemiol Community Health 200155729–730. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

Substances