title: Associations of smoking prevalence with individual and area level social cohesion.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To discover if area level social cohesion, neighbourhood safety, and home safety are associated with current cigarette smoking among adults after adjustment for concentrations of poverty and low education.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross sectional survey of a random sample of adults, stratified by 19 geographical areas.
  
  
  METHODS
  SHAPE, Survey of the Health of Adults, the Population, and the Environment-conducted in 1998 by the Hennepin County Community Health Department and the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support in Minnesota.
  
  
  METHODS
  5256 men and 4806 women, 18 years and older, randomly selected from 19 geographical areas in an urban county.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 21.2% of survey respondents reported current cigarette smoking. Both higher area level social cohesion (OR = 0.85, 95% CI = 0.74 to 0.98) and higher individual social cohesion (OR = 0.96, 95% CI = 0.92 to 0.99) were associated with lower likelihoods of smoking. Similar models were obtained for neighbourhood safety and home safety.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings contribute to the growing literature on the important role of social cohesion and other area level characteristics on smoking behaviour among adults.
authors.affiliation: University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, USA. joan.patterson@epi.umn.edu
authors.forename: Joan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.forename: Lynn E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Eberly
authors.forename: Yingmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hargreaves
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008910:Minnesota / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012449:Safety / Q000592:standards; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012944:Social Support