Is the co-occurrence of smoking and poor consumption of fruits and vegetables confounded by socioeconomic conditions?
OBJECTIVE
As smoking and unhealthy diet are more prevalent in lower socioeconomic groups, this study aims at exploring whether associations between smoking and fruit and vegetable consumption are confounded by socioeconomic conditions or if smoking is independently associated with consumption.


METHODS
Cross-sectional analyses of 4,814 middle-aged participants from the Heinz Nixdorf recall study, a population-based cohort study in Germany. Fruit and vegetable consumption was assessed by a food frequency questionnaire. Education and income were used as indicators for socioeconomic groups. Logistic regression models were run to estimate odds ratios for consumption by smoking status.


RESULTS
Smoking is associated with poor consumption of fruits and raw vegetables/salad in both genders, and with poor consumption of boiled vegetables and fruit/vegetable juice in men. Importantly, poor consumption is related to smoking independently of people's socioeconomic conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings imply that smokers in all socioeconomic groups are at higher risk for unhealthy intake of fruits and vegetables. Public health interventions targeted to smokers should include dietary instructions.
Department of Medical Sociology, University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany. christine.muff@uni-duesseldorf.de
Christine
C
Muff
N
N
Dragano
K-H
KH
Jöckel
S
S
Moebus
S
S
Möhlenkamp
R
R
Erbel
K
K
Mann
J
J
Siegrist
D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014675:Vegetables