People living in the most disadvantaged circumstances in England are not only more likely to smoke, but tend to be more addicted to tobacco and find it harder to quit – according to new research led by the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford.
The study, published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, analysed data from nearly 200,000 adults surveyed between 2014 and 2023 as part of the Smoking Toolkit Study – an ongoing national survey tracking smoking behaviours in England.
Researchers from Oxford, University College London, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst examined how smoking behaviours varied across five different measures of socioeconomic position: occupational grade, employment status, housing type, educational level, and household income.
They found a consistent pattern: regardless of which measure of disadvantage was used, people in more disadvantaged groups were more likely to smoke, reported stronger urges to smoke (suggesting greater addiction), and were less motivated to quit.
People from more disadvantaged occupations, those with lower household incomes, and those with less education were also less likely to have attempted to quit smoking in the past year compared to those in the most advantaged groups.
The researchers also looked at what happened when people did try to quit. They found that those who rented their homes – whether privately or through social housing – had lower odds of quitting successfully compared to homeowners, even after accounting for how addicted they were. This suggests that factors associated with housing circumstances may play a distinct role in whether quit attempts succeed.
Read the full story on the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences website.