Original articleSocioeconomic Differences in Smoking Among Finnish Adolescents From 1977 to 2007
Section snippets
Data source
The data were collected as part of a national monitoring system of adolescent health and health behaviors, the Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey. The survey instrument consists of a 12-page self-administered questionnaire mailed biennially since 1977 to a nationally representative sample of independent samples of adolescents aged 12, 14, 16, and 18 years, with two reminders sent to nonrespondents (N = 2,832–6,503; yearly response rate 59%–88%, total respondents N = 96,747). The samples
Smoking by adolescent's familial SES
Children in lower socioeconomic groups smoked more than children in higher socioeconomic groups, whether measured by father's or mother's education (Table 3). The only exception was that smoking prevalence for adolescent boys whose fathers were farmers did not differ from the reference group and smoking prevalence was lower among adolescent daughters of farmers than among those of upper white-collar employees.
There was a statistically significant interaction between the study period and the
Summary of the results
Using a nationally representative large sample, this study shows that there are socioeconomic differences in smoking behavior among Finnish adolescents. Smoking is more strongly linked to an adolescent's individual social position than to his or her familial SES. Over the 30-year period, the differences between socioeconomic groups persisted and, in some groups, even increased over time. An increase in smoking was observed among 12–14-year-olds girls whose school performance was poor, and among
Conclusions
Despite efforts targeted at reducing health inequalities in Finland, the results of the present study indicate that there are persistent or even increasing socioeconomic differences in smoking behavior among Finnish adolescents, whether measured by familial SES or the adolescent's individual social position (school performance and school career), to the disadvantage of those in lower socioeconomic groups. Individual social position was, however, a more important predictor of smoking than
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Mr Lasse Pere of the School of Public Health, University of Tampere, for data management. This study was financially supported by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (the §27 Appropriation of the Tobacco Act), the Competitive Research Funding of the Pirkanmaa Hospital District, the Finnish Cultural Foundation Central Fund, Academy of Finland Grant number 130481, Juho Vainion Foundation, and the University of Tampere Research Stipend.
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2016, Preventive MedicineCitation Excerpt :Within the same school, the perceived smoking prevalence can vary to a large extent between groups of students (Brown et al., 2010; Conley Thomson et al., 2005; Javier et al., 2013; Pedersen et al., 2013; Unger and Rohrbach, 2002). For example, perceived smoking prevalence rates have been found to be higher in adolescents of lower socioeconomic position (SEP) than in their high SEP counterparts (Doku et al., 2010; Pförtner et al., 2014; Richter and Leppin, 2007), in females than in males (Javier et al., 2013; Pedersen et al., 2013; Unger and Rohrbach, 2002) and in adolescents who have more friends who are smokers (Conley Thomson et al., 2005; Unger and Rohrbach, 2002). However, subgroup variations have hitherto only been studied in the USA, and not in the European context.