Poverty, other disadvantages tied to higher smoking risk
The more adversities people face, the more likely they are to start smoking and the less likely they are to quit, a US study suggests.
Researchers examined data from a decade of annual national surveys, focusing on 278,048 adults who were asked about smoking as well as six socioeconomic or health-related disadvantages: Unemployment, poverty, low education, disability, serious psychological distress and heavy drinking.
About 14 per cent of people without these adversities smoked, researchers reported in Jama Internal Medicine. Each added disadvantage increased smoking rates, up to 58 per cent among people with all six adversities.
"(These) disadvantagesadd up to the same outcome: They increase your risk of smoking," said lead author Adam Leventhal, from the University of Southern California Health, Emotion & Addiction Laboratory. - REUTERS
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