WHO SMOKES?
Data from the 1992 General Household Survey in the UK showed that 28 per cent of
people aged 16 and over were smokers compared with 30 per cent in 1990. This decrease
in smoking behaviour follows a trend for an overall decline and is shown in Figure 5.1.
However, the data also showed that, although women smoke fewer cigarettes than men,
fewer women than men are giving up.
Smokers can also be categorized in terms of whether they are ‘ex-smokers’, ‘current
smokers’ or whether they have ‘never smoked’. The trends in smoking behaviour
according to these categories are shown in Figure 5.2. Again, sex differences can be seen
for these types of smoking behaviour with men showing an increase in the numbers of
‘never smoked’ and ‘ex-smokers’, and a decrease in ‘current smokers’, whilst women
show the same profile of change for both ‘current smokers’ and ‘ex-smokers’ but show a
consistently high level of individuals who have ‘never smoked’.
In general, data about smoking behaviour (General Household Survey 1994) suggests
the following about smokers: Smoking behaviour is on the decline, but this decrease is greater in men than in
women.
Smokers tend to be in the unskilled manual group.
There has been a dramatic reduction in the number of smokers smoking middle-tar
cigarettes.Fig. 5-1 Changes in smoking, 1972–92 (after General Household Survey 1994)100 HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY