San Diego, CA -- Tobacco control measures such as taxes and smoking restrictions do work, but men and women respond differently to them, a group of researchers reported Saturday.
Georgia scientist Linda L. Pederson, Ph.D., and two Canadian colleagues presented data demonstrating that women are more responsive than men to increases in tobacco cost due to taxation, and to restrictions on public smoking. Men, on the other hand, are more responsive to public anti-smoking education efforts.
Pederson, a researcher at the Morehouse School of Medicine at Atlanta, presented these findings at the annual meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, a worldwide group of scientists promoting public health through understanding smoking prevention and cessation.
Among both sexes, the odds of being a smoker were significantly higher for those older than 40, for those with less than a high school education, and for those who were divorced or separated. The findings were based on analysis of 8,500 records from a national household survey, which included data on smoking. The researchers combined the survey data with information about tobacco taxation, municipal ordinances against public smoking, and expenditures on anti-smoking education.