Explaining Social Class Inequalities in Smoking: The Role of Education, Self-Efficacy, and Deprivation
Explaining Social Class Inequalities in Smoking: The Role of Education, Self-Efficacy, and Deprivation
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DOI：
10.1093/esr/jcn022
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发表时间：
2009-08-01
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
Whelan, Christopher T.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Layte, Richard;Whelan, Christopher T.
在过去50年左右的时间里，大多数北方欧洲国家的吸烟率急剧下降，但体力劳动阶层每天吸烟的可能性要比专业和管理阶层大得多。本文探讨了三个假设的过程中产生这些不平等。第一种观点认为，社会阶层的不平等反映了不同教育群体对吸烟风险的认识存在差异。第二，低社会阶层的生活条件导致较低的自我效能感和较低的戒烟倾向。第三种说法是，吸烟在较贫穷的人中具有功能性用途。本文利用来自爱尔兰共和国的数据来评估这些假设。我们的分析为第一个假设提供了一些支持，即教育独立地将手工类人吸烟的几率相对于非手工类人降低了12%。第三个假设获得了最多的支持：劣势和剥夺的措施几乎占吸烟阶级差异的三分之一。结果表明，戒烟政策应反映戒烟行为的社会和经济背景的重要性。
Rates of smoking have decreased dramatically in most Northern European countries over the last 50 years or so, but manual working class groups are substantially more likely to smoke daily than are the professional and managerial classes. This article examines three hypotheses about the processes producing these inequalities. The first argues that social class inequalities reflect differences across education groups in knowledge of the risks of smoking. The second suggests that the living conditions of lower social class groups leads to the development of lower self-efficacy and a lower propensity to quit smoking. The third states that smoking has a functional use among poorer individuals. This article draws upon data from the Republic of Ireland to assess these hypotheses. Our analysis provides some support for the first hypothesis in that education independently reduces the odds of a manual class person smoking relative to a non-manual by 12 per cent. The second hypothesis is not supported by the data. The third hypothesis gains the most support: measures of disadvantage and deprivation account for almost one-third of the class differential in smoking. The results suggest that smoking cessation policy should reflect the importance of social and economic context in quitting behaviour.