The relationship between cigarette smoking and education revisited: Implications for categorizing persons' educational status

B.-P. Zhu, G.A. Giovino, P.D. Mowery and M.P. Eriksen

American Journal of Public Health, 1996, vol. 86, issue 11, 1582-1589

Abstract: Objective. This study sought to reassess the relationship between cigarette smoking and education. Methods. Data from the 1983 to 1991 National Health Interview Survey for participants aged 25 years and older were used to plot the prevalence of current smoking, ever smoking, heavy smoking, and smoking cessation, as well as the adjusted log odds ratios, by years of education. Results. The 'less than high school graduate' category consisted of two groups with distinct smoking patterns: persons with 0 to 8 years and persons with 9 to 11 years of education. The latter were the most likely to be current, ever, and heavy smokers and the least likely to have quit smoking, whereas the former were similar to persons having 12 years of education. After 11 years of education, the likelihood of smoking decreased and that of smoking cessation increased with each successive year of education. These results persisted after the statistical adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, poverty status, employment status, marital status, geographic region, and year of survey. Conclusions. The relationship between smoking and education is not monotonic. Thus, when evaluating smoking in relation to education, researchers should categorize years of education as follows: 0 to 8, 9 to 11, 12, 13 to 15, and 16 or more years.

Date: 1996
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:1996:86:11:1582-1589_0

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().