© 2004 American Public Health Association
Barbara J. M. H. Jefferis and Chris Power are with The Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health, London, England. At the time of the study, Hilary Graham was with the Department of Applied Social Science, Lancaster University, Lancaster, England. Orly Manor is with the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Barbara J. M. H. Jefferis, MSc, Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford St, London WC1N 1EH, United Kingdom (e-mail: b.jefferis{at}ich.ucl.ac.uk).
Objectives. We investigated whether socioeconomic circumstances at different life stages influence persistent smoking. Methods. We followed a British birth cohort (all births between March 3 and 9, 1958) for 41 years to examine the influence of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic position on persistent smoking in adulthood (n = 6541). Results. Persistent smoking (19% of participants, n = 1216) showed strong social gradients with both childhood and adulthood socioeconomic measures. Among men, the association with childhood socioeconomic circumstances was no longer significant after we adjusted for adulthood socioeconomic circumstances; however, among women, the adjusted odds of persistent smoking increased by 8% for each unit increase across a 16-point childhood score. Conclusions. Childhood socioeconomic circumstances predicted persistent smoking among women in our cohort, a finding that highlights the importance of influences on the development of persistent smoking across the life course.
Prolonged tobacco use is recognized as the most important and the most preventable cause of premature mortality in industrial countries. It is estimated that among those who smoke regularly throughout their adult lives, about half will die from smoking-related diseases.1 In industrial countries, most smokers begin smoking in their teenage years,2 and the majority of regular smokers continue smoking into middle age.3 Throughout adulthood, socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with persistent smoking, whereas higher socioeconomic status is associated with higher rates of smoking cessation.3 These socioeconomic differentials in smoking persistence contribute to socioeconomic gradients in health, making the determinants of smoking differentials key objects of inquiry for public health research and policy.4 Longitudinal research has begun to open 2 important lines of inquiry. First, a small number of studies have examined the contribution of socioeconomic circumstances in childhood and adulthood to smoking risk in adulthood.511 These studies indicate possible gender differences in influences on lifetime smoking. Adult socioeconomic status is reported to be more important than childhood social class57and education12 in influencing smoking among men. Among women, childhood socioeconomic circumstances8,11 and education811 have an effect on adult smoking beyond that of adult socioeconomic circumstances. Second, the pathways that underlie the relationship between childhood disadvantage and smoking status have been examined in another cluster of studies. Important mediators identified in these studies are factors related to family background, including parental smoking13,14 and the young persons educational track,15 which in turn are related to parental education and social class.16 Other factors affecting the pathway to adult socioeconomic position, including labor market experiences17,18 and, among women, early and single parenthood,19,20 also are associated with smoking status in early adulthood. These 2 fields of research mainly focus on current smoking and rely on restricted markers of socioeconomic position. Therefore, they do not examine duration of exposure to poor socioeconomic conditions, which is suggested to be a potentially important influence on adult smoking behavior.20,21 We extended previous research by using longitudinal data from the 1958 British birth cohort described in further detail later in this article. We examined the influence of socioeconomic circumstances, which were measured by occupational class at different life stages, on prolonged tobacco use from 23 to 41 years of age. With information on socioeconomic circumstances at several time points, we investigated whether both childhood and adulthood socioeconomic circumstances influence smoking persistence (i.e., there is a cumulative effect) or whether socioeconomic influences are confined to a particular life stage (childhood or adulthood). Additionally, we sought to identify potential mediating factors through which socioeconomic circumstances at different life stages might affect smoking persistence. We looked specifically at the contribution of parental smoking and other dimensions of socioeconomic position (notably parental education and the individuals own education and reproductive and labor market experiences) to the risk of persistent smoking among men and among women. Because smoking may be a predictor of an individuals social trajectory17 rather than the reverse, we considered as a secondary issue whether the effects of adult socioeconomic position are the result of the influence of early smoking behavior on adult social trajectories.
Sample
Measures Social class was classified in accordance with the Registrar Generals Occupational Scale,23 which ranges from class I (professional) to class V (unskilled manual) on an ordinal scale. Social class of the cohort participants father was recorded at birth and at 7, 11, and 16 years of age. At 23, 33, and 41 years of age, the participants current or most recent class was recorded for both men and women. Social class was used as a continuous variable at each age: 1 represented classes I and II, 2 represented class III nonmanual, 3 represented class III manual, and 4 represented classes IV and V. When social class at 7 years of age was missing, the value at 11 years of age was used; similarly, when social class at 11 years of age was missing, the value at 16 years of age was used, provided that social class at 7 years of age was not also missing. Cohort participants with no male head of household were included with classes IV and V. Rather than use separate measures of social class at each age, cumulative socioeconomic position scores were calculated for childhood and adulthood. For childhood, scores at birth and at 7, 11, and 16 years of age were summed to produce a cumulative score that ranged from 4 (most favorable circumstances) to 16 (least favorable). For adulthood, scores at 23, 33, and 41 years of age were summed to produce a similar scale that ranged from 3 to 12. Because occupation-based measures of socioeconomic position may misclassify women,11,24 an alternative measure also was used that was based on housing tenure (owner, renter, or other at 7 to 41 years of age). Potential mediating factors include those related to the social environment of the home; fathers educational level is another dimension of socioeconomic position and was used in our study as a mediating factor, partly because, unlike occupational class, educational level is not measured at several time points. Also, for the parents generation, parental education (leaving school before 15 years of age or leaving school at 15 years of age or later) was relatively homogenous. Parental smoking was reported when the participant was 16 years of age. The participants education was measured as the highest educational qualification achieved by 23 years of age and was coded as higher education, A level (or equivalent), O level (or equivalent), less than O level (or equivalent), or none. These are broadly comparable to US classifications of above high school diploma; high school diploma/grade 12; grade 10; less than grade 10; or no qualifications.
Reproductive pathways were indexed according to the participants age at the birth of their first child (< 23 years of age or
Initial data analysis explored univariate relationships between persistent smoking (vs other smoking and nonsmoking) and social class from birth to 41 years of age. Logistic regression was used to predict persistent smoking from cumulative measures of childhood and adulthood social position, first in unadjusted models separately for childhood and adulthood social position scores and then in mutually adjusted models of these 2 variables. This approach allowed us to better isolate the stage of life when influences on smoking might be operating. In the next stage of this life course study, logistic regression models included additional factors that might explain the contribution of childhood socioeconomic circumstances to the risk of persistent smoking. These potential mediating factors were included in their temporal sequence, with, for example, measures related to the early home environment entered before measures of the participants educational career. Cigarette consumption also was examined with these models, and interactions between socioeconomic position scores and other variables were tested. We assessed multicollinearity in the final model with an adaptation of the standard inflation factors method for logistic regression.25 We found that the results were not affected by multicollinearity. We also considered whether any effect of adult social position on smoking persistence could be the result of social mobilityi.e., whether adolescent smokers would be less likely to move to higher social classes. We constructed a model with smoking persistence as the dependent variable and socioeconomic circumstances in childhood, adulthood, and their interaction. Before this, we assessed the association between smoking at 16 years of age and social mobility and adjusted for socioeconomic circumstances at 16 years of age with polytomous logistic regression. This analysis used 3 groups: upwardly mobile (men n = 812, women n = 988), downwardly mobile (men n = 388, women n = 360), and socially stable (men n = 366, women n = 266). The latter was the reference category.
In the sample with complete data on smoking habits from 16 to 41 years of age (n = 6541), 18% of men (n = 559) and 19% of women (n = 657) were persistent smokers from 23 to 41 years of age. Most persistent smokers (70%) were smokers at 16 years of age. Current smokers at 41 years of age were predominantly long-term smokers; 23% of men (n = 711) and 24% of women (n = 813) were smokers at 41 years of age; of these, 4 out of 5 men (79%) and women (81%) had smoked since 23 years of age or earlier.
There were strong socioeconomic gradients in persistent smoking. At each age, social position significantly predicted persistent smoking in univariate analyses (Table 1
The increase in prevalence of persistent smoking with increasing childhood cumulative socioeconomic scores is illustrated in Figure 1
The adulthood cumulative score also predicted persistent smoking, and a strong effect remained after we adjusted for childhood socioeconomic circumstances. Odds of persistent smoking increased by 19% among women for each 1-unit increase in adulthood score, which resulted in an odds ratio of 4.8 for those in the least favorable adult socioeconomic circumstances compared with those in the most favorable circumstances. Among men, the odds increased by 21% for each 1-unit increase in adulthood score (OR = 5.6 across the scale). Similar patterns were found when we used housing tenure as an alternative socioeconomic measure. In mutually adjusted models for childhood and adulthood housing tenure, there was a significant effect of tenure in childhood among women. Women who lived in owner-occupied housing were less likely to be persistent smokers than were those who lived in rented and other accommodations (data not presented). Among men, the estimate was in the same direction but was not statistically significant after we adjusted for adulthood housing tenure.
Next, we examined the relationship between childhood and adulthood socioeconomic circumstances and persistent smoking, and we allowed for potential mediators through which socioeconomic circumstances might act. All potential mediators (except parental education among men) were significantly related to persistent smoking in univariate analyses (Table 3
With respect to cumulative socioeconomic circumstances in adulthood, Table 3
In addition to highlighting pathways that underlie the association between childhood and adulthood socioeconomic circumstances and persistent smoking, Table 3 In further analyses that included cigarette consumption levels at 16 years of age, we found that the effects on persistent smoking of socioeconomic circumstances in childhood and adulthood remained after adjusting for consumption level at 16 years of age among women (adjusted OR = 1.06, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.02, 1.10 for childhood circumstances; adjusted OR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.08, 1.19 for adulthood circumstances). Among men, the effects of adulthood socioeconomic circumstances remained after we adjusted for consumption level at 16 years of age (OR = 1.12; 95% CI = 1.07, 1.18). Finally, we found that smoking at 16 years of age had a significant effect on subsequent social mobility: after we controlled for social class at 16 years of age, we found that male smokers were less likely to be upwardly mobile than were nonsmokers (OR = 0.57; 95% CI = 0.43, 0.76). In models of the effects of childhood and adulthood socioeconomic circumstances on persistent smoking, main effects, but not their interaction, were significant. Thus, social mobility effects are likely to contribute to the effects of adulthood socioeconomic circumstances on persistent smoking.
Our study provides a life course perspective on persistent smoking in adulthood. It examines the contribution of childhood socioeconomic circumstances to the risk of persistent smoking, and it identifies potential factors that mediate this relationship. First, we found that almost 1 in 5 participants from the British birth cohort were persistent smokers; the majority (70%) smoked over a 25-year period from 16 to 41 years of age. Second, we demonstrated clear social gradients in smoking persistence, which is important because persistent smokers have a high burden of morbidity and mortality26 that contributes to and reinforces health inequalities.4,27 Third, we found that socioeconomic circumstances across the life course influence smoking persistence, a cumulative relationship that appears to be additive. Stronger effects were demonstrated for adulthood socioeconomic circumstances than for childhood socioeconomic circumstances. Poor childhood socioeconomic circumstances, which were measured by the occupation-based score, significantly increased the risk of persistent smoking only among women (although it could be argued that among men, an influence of childhood socioeconomic circumstances is indicated by the effects of parental education). These findings on persistent smoking extend the evidence from studies of current smoking. Among men, previous studies57 showed that adulthood socioeconomic circumstances are more important than childhood socioeconomic circumstances in predicting smoking. Among women, there is evidence that childhood or adolescent socioeconomic circumstances influence the risk of current smoking after adjustment for recent socioeconomic circumstances.810 Fourth, we examined possible mediators in the association between childhood socioeconomic circumstances and smoking persistence, and we focused on structural factors rather than an individuals personality and psychology. The effect of parental smoking behavior, as identified in studies of adolescent smoking,13,14 was observed in our study. The stronger effect of fathers smoking among men and of mothers smoking among women may be a marker of gender modeling, which is identified as an important mechanism for family influences on health behavior.13 Gender modelinggreater influence of parental behavior on children of the same gender than on those of the opposite genderhas been documented in few previous studies of childrens smoking.28 However, parental smoking did not explain the association between childhood socioeconomic circumstances and persistent smoking, and parental education was significant only among men. Factors related to the individuals pathways into adulthood were more important predictors. The individuals education level explained most of the association and had a strong graded effect on the odds of persistent smoking. This is not surprising, and indeed education is an alternative socioeconomic measure, although it taps different dimensions.12 Men and women who had no educational qualifications were most likely to smoke (compared with those who had qualifications above A level [adjusted OR = 3.9 for men; adjusted OR = 4.5 for women]). The influence of education on smoking is consistent with findings in other studies.9,10,29 With respect to adulthood socioeconomic circumstances, we found that among men, the association remained even after we adjusted for educational level and other influences in childhood and adulthood. Among women, factors earlier in life, including educational level, partly explained the association between adulthood socioeconomic circumstances and persistent smoking. It may be the case that among women, childhood socioeconomic circumstances, mothers smoking, and participants education level are the main factors underlying the association between persistent smoking and adulthood socioeconomic circumstances. Alternatively, adulthood socioeconomic measures that are based on occupation may be less adequate for women than for men. Other socioeconomic factors, such as age at birth of first child, single parenthood, and unemployment, although important in their own right, did not substantially explain the pathways through which either childhood or adulthood socioeconomic circumstances act on persistent smoking. Young peoples pathways into parenthood predicted persistent smoking; for example, even after we allowed for other potential influences, women and men who were teenage or early parents were 1.4 times more likely to be persistent smokers than were those who deferred parenthood. Women who were single mothers by 33 years of age were 1.7 times more likely than mothers in two parent families and women without children to be persistent smokers. The increased risk is consistent with previous research showing that single parenthood is a barrier to smoking cessation.3 Results from our study suggest that the domestic and the educational pathways have separate effects and capture reproductive and domestic aspects of socioeconomic circumstances among women. Among men, the experience of unemployment in early adulthood increased the odds of persistent smoking, but the elevated risk did not reach statistical significance. There is some evidence from previous research that unemployment is linked to higher rates of smoking.18,30 We also addressed the possibility that social mobility linked to adolescent smoking status (which relates to smoking persistence) may contribute to the influence of adult social measures on smoking persistence, and we found some evidence for this pathway.
Strengths and Weaknesses
There is a substantial group of British men and women who are currently in midlife and who have smoked persistently from early adulthood. These persistent smokers are sharply differentiated by their adulthood socioeconomic circumstances. Childhood socioeconomic circumstances also appear to have been involved in socially differentiating smokers from non-smokers, especially among women. Education was a major pathway through which effects of childhood socioeconomic circumstances were transmitted in turn to persistent smoking in adulthood. These findings highlight the importance of social disadvantage across the life span in contributing to persistent smoking and health inequalities. An appreciation of the influence of lifetime socioeconomic circumstances on persistent smoking widens the framework for tobacco control policy. It strengthens the case for dedicated programs to promote cessation among disadvantaged groups. More broadly, it suggests that policies that target smoking habits (restrictions on tobacco advertising and sale, investment in smoking education, cessation programs) should be complemented by policies that target the pathways of disadvantage that shape these habits.20,21 In this wider policy framework, welfare policiesproviding education and training for young people likely to leave school early and likely to be early parents, lifting the living standards of poor householdswould be explicit components of tobacco control programs to reduce adolescent recruitment into persistent smoking and to address the socioeconomic gradient in adult smoking.
This work was supported by Economic and Social Research Council grant R000239579. Data was obtained from the following institutions: the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, Institute of Education; National Child Development Study Composite File, including selected perinatal data and sweeps 1 to 5 (computer file); National Birthday Trust Fund, National Childrens Bureau, City University, Social Statistics Research Unit (original data producers); and the Data Archive distributor, Colchester, Essex (SN: 3148. 1994).
Human Participant Protection
Contributors All of the authors contributed to generating the ideas, conducting the data analyses, interpreting the findings, and writing and reviewing drafts of this article. Accepted for publication May 23, 2003.
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