Prevalence of tobacco smoking among participants of PURE Poland study

Introduction: Smoking is the largest avoidable health risk factor in Europe. The aim of this paper is to assess the attitude towards tobacco smoking among participants of PURE Poland Study.

Material and methods: Analysis of attitude towards tobacco smoking was carried out between 2007 and 2010 in a cohort consisting of 2,036 subjects aged from 30 to 85, living in Wroclaw and surrounding municipalities, enrolled in the PURE (Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological) Study. We analyzed percentage of current smokers, ex-smokers, and never smokers in the study population. The collected data was analyzed according to sex, age, place of residence, and education. The significance level was p ≤ 0.05.

Results: Among surveyed, 21.0% were current smokers, 31.7% were ex-smokers, and 47.3% have never smoked. 26.4% of rural population were current smokers, while in urban population it was only 17.2%. Place of residence in the rural area increases the risk of being a current smoker 1.7-fold (OR = 1.7269, CI 1.3924 to 2.1418); on the other hand, living in an urban area, increases the chance of quitting smoking 2.3-fold (OR = 2.3044, CI 1.7897 to 2.9671). 15.1% of people with higher education were current smokers in comparison to 30.2% with vocational education. Men have taken on smoking significantly earlier (19.2 SD ±4.6) than women (20.4 SD ±4.4), and smoked more cigarettes a day than women (17.5 cigarette a day SD ±9.1 vs. 13.1 cigarette a day SD ±9.0).

Conclusions: The percentage of current smokers is much higher among rural than urban dwellers. Recently, more people quit smoking in urban than rural areas.