Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Sep 18;18(1):148.
doi: 10.1186/s12939-019-1051-x.

Long-term trends in smoking prevalence and its socioeconomic inequalities in Korea, 1992-2016

Youngs Chang  1 , Hee-Yeon Kang  1 , Dohee Lim  2 , Hong-Jun Cho  3 , Young-Ho Khang  4   5
Affiliations

Long-term trends in smoking prevalence and its socioeconomic inequalities in Korea, 1992-2016

Youngs Chang et al. Int J Equity Health. .

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate long-term trends in smoking prevalence and its socioeconomic inequalities in Korea.

Methods: Data were collected from 10 rounds of the Social Survey of Statistics Korea between 1992 and 2016. A total of 524,866 men and women aged 19 or over were analyzed. Age-adjusted smoking prevalence was calculated according to three major socioeconomic position indicators: education, occupational class, and income. The prevalence difference, prevalence ratio, slope index of inequality (SII), and relative index of inequality (RII) were calculated to examine the magnitude of inequality in smoking.

Results: Smoking prevalence among men decreased from 71.7% in 1992 to 39.7% in 2016, while smoking prevalence among women decreased from 6.5% in 1992 to 3.3% in 2016. Socioeconomic inequalities in smoking prevalence according to the three socioeconomic position indicators were found in both men and women throughout the study period. In general, absolute and relative socioeconomic inequalities in smoking, measured by prevalence difference and prevalence ratio for education and occupational class, widened during the study period among Korean men and women. In men, the SII for income increased from 7.6% in 1999 to 10.8% in 2016 and the RII for income also increased from 1.11 in 1999 to 1.31 in 2016. In women, the SII for income increased from 0.1% in 1999 to 2.4% in 2016 and the RII for income increased from 1.39 in 1999 to 2.25 in 2016.

Conclusion: Pro-rich socioeconomic inequalities in smoking prevalence were found in men and women. Socioeconomic inequalities in smoking have increased in parallel with the implementation of tobacco control policies. Tobacco control policies should be developed to decrease socioeconomic inequalities in cigarette use in Korea.

Keywords: Republic of Korea; Smoking; Socioeconomic factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest associated with the material presented in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Trends in smoking prevalence between 1992 and 2016 among Korean men and women: Results from the Social Survey of Statistics Korea
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Trends in age group-specific smoking prevalence between 1992 and 2016 among Korean men (a) and women (b): Results from the Social Survey of Statistics Korea
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Trends in age-standardized smoking prevalence according to educational attainment between 1992 and 2016 among Korean men (a) and women (b): Results from the Social Survey of Statistics Korea
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Trends in age-standardized smoking prevalence according to occupational class between 1992 and 2016 among Korean men (a) and women (b): Results from the Social Survey of Statistics Korea
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Trends in age-standardized smoking prevalence according to income tertile between 1999 and 2016 among Korean men (a) and women (b): Results from the Social Survey of Statistics Korea
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Department of Health and Human Services . The health consequences of smoking—50 years of Progress: a report of the surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Office on Smoking and Health: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; 2014. p. 17.
    1. Hackshaw A, Morris JK, Boniface S, Tang JL, Milenkovic D. Low cigarette consumption and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke: meta-analysis of 141 cohort studies in 55 study reports. BMJ. 2018;360:j5855. doi: 10.1136/bmj.j5855. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. GBD Tobacco Collaborators Smoking prevalence and attributable disease burden in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet. 2017;389:1885–1906. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30819-X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. GBD 2017 Risk Factor Collaborators Global regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet. 2018;392:1923–1994. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32225-6. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. http://www.who.int/fctc/text_download/en/index.html. Accessed December 3, 2018.

Publication types