An Epidemiological Population Health Study Reveals Social Smoking is Highest in the Western United States
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Date
2024-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Purpose and Background/Significance: Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States (U.S.). Many people inaccurately believe that social smoking is less harmful than everyday smoking; however, little is known about social smoking patterns in the US. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of social smoking by US geographical region.
Method: This was a cross-sectional, national survey on a convenient sample of 59,434 adults from across the United States. Data were collected online from 2015 to 2022 from cardiovascular community screenings associated with the Million Hearts Fellowship program. Measures included demographics, state of residence, and smoking status (current, social, non-smoker, e-cigarette user). US states were divided into regions: West, Midwest, South, and Northeast. Z-tests compared the proportion of social smokers in each geographic region.
Results: All regions had a high number of individuals who identified as socially smoking. The West had the highest prevalence of social smoking (12.30%), followed by Northeast (10.17%), South (8.89%), and the Midwest had the lowest (8.03%).
Conclusions: This is the first paper to investigate social smoking patterns across US geographic regions. Given the regional differences in social smoking rates, further investigation of contextual factors may enable the design of tailored interventions based on geographic location.
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Keywords
Social smoking, Smoking epidemiology, Health promotion, Cardiovascular prevention, Million Hearts