title: Gender balance and its impact on male and female smoking rates in Chinese cities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although gender differences in smoking have received much attention, few studies have explored the importance of contextual effects on male and female smoking rates. The aim of this study is to examine the association between variations in city-level sex ratios and gender differences in smoking in China.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants included 16,866 urban residents, who were identified through multi-stage sampling conducted in 21 Chinese cities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study found that, independent of personal characteristics, cities with more males had higher male smoking rates and lower female rates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our research underscores the importance of city-level contextual effects in understanding gender differences in smoking in China.
authors.affiliation: Center for Tobacco Control Research, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China. Electronic address: tingzhongyang@zju.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Tingzhong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Ross
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Barnett
authors.affiliation: Center for Tobacco Control Research, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Shuhan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Center for Tobacco Control Research, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310058, China.
authors.forename: Lingwei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO 63104-1314, USA.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xian
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ying
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310053, China.
authors.forename: Weijun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D002947:Cities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012744:Sex Ratio; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: China; Cigarettes; Gender differences; Smoking; Urban context effects