title: Inequalities in smoking in the Czech Republic: societal or individual effects?
abstract: Smoking constitutes one of the main public health problems worldwide. In the Czech Republic, one of the post-communist countries undergoing societal transition, there was a significant decrease in smoking prevalence during 1985-1997, followed by certain stagnation in prevalence of smokers. The most serious problem is the smoking among young population and socially disadvantaged groups. This paper examines social inequalities in smoking in the Czech population using multilevel approach. Data were analysed by multilevel modelling using smoking in the past, current smoking and current moderate/heavy smoking as outcomes of interest. Men were significantly more likely to be smokers than women. Further, the analysis confirmed that current smoking is the most common among young people. Education was strongly inversely related to all smoking outcomes. Smoking was also significantly more reported by divorced and unemployed individuals. While the association between small-area characteristics and smoking was limited, smoking was more common in the areas with higher unemployment and higher proportion of non-Czech nationals.
authors.affiliation: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague 2, Czech Republic. spilkova@natur.cuni.cz
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Spilková
authors.forename: Dagmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dzúrová
authors.forename: Hynek
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pikhart
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D018153:Czech Republic / Q000453:epidemiology; D004243:Divorce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult