The low prevalence of smoking in the Northern Sweden MONICA study, 2009.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to describe tobacco use in the 2009 Northern Sweden cohort of the World Health Organization Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Diseases (MONICA) study.


METHODS
Subjects (N = 1698) were randomly selected from population registers, stratified for age (25-74 years old) and gender, in the two northernmost Swedish counties of Norrbotten and Västerbotten. Responses from tobacco-related questions were used to develop three mutually exclusive categories of snus use: past, current, or never use; and three comparable categories of smoking that were consistent with previous studies.


RESULTS
Among men, the prevalence of smoking (9%) and dual use (2%) remain unchanged from 2004, although the prevalence of snus use declined from 27% in 2004 to 24% in 2009. Among women, the prevalence of all forms of tobacco use declined between 2004 and 2009; smoking dropped from 16% to 11%, dual use from 2% to less than 1%, and snus use from 9% to 8%. Although overall prevalence of tobacco use was similar for younger versus older men and younger versus older women, there were notable differences in specific snus and smoking rates.


CONCLUSIONS
This study confirms that use of snus was a significant factor in the low prevalence of smoking, especially among younger men and women in Northern Sweden. Furthermore, it documents that tobacco harm reduction is entirely compatible with a population-level decline in overall tobacco use.
1Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, KY, USA.
Brad
B
Rodu
Jan-Håkan
JH
Jansson
Mats
M
Eliasson
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014030:Tobacco, Smokeless / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
Dual use; MONICA; northern Sweden; smoking; snus use