Daily tobacco smoking patterns in rural and urban areas of Poland--the results of the GATS study.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE Cigarette smoking is one of the main causes of premature death worldwide. Tobacco smoking is influenced by social and economic factors such as age, gender, level of education and place of residence. The objective of this paper is to describe the occurrence of daily tobacco use in urban and rural populations in Poland. MATERIALS AND METHOD The data was collected between 2009-2010 as part of the International Global Adult Tobacco Survey project. The study was conducted based on population of age 15 and older. 7,840 full individual interviews were conducted (51.2% in rural and 48.8% in urban areas). The total response rate was equal to 65.1%. RESULTS 25.4% of rural residents at the age of 15 and above smoke tobacco daily (32.5% men and 17.9% women). In cities, this percentage corresponds to 30.3% (35.4% males and 25.8% females, respectively). Among the males and females, the highest percentage of daily tobacco smokers was found among respondents with vocational education (males 47.3% in urban and 41.8% in rural areas; females 36.8% and 23.5%, respectively). In both the rural and urban areas the lowest percentage of daily cigarette smokers among male respondents were those with higher education (24.9% in urban and 16.1% in rural areas). In the group of female respondents, the lowest incidence was observed among those with primary education (16.4% in urban, 11.7% in rural areas). CONCLUSIONS Daily smoking patterns in Poland differ according to the place of residence (urban/rural) and gender. A decrease in the percentage of daily tobacco users should be observed in the next few years. Along with age exceeding 60 years, the percentage of daily cigarette smokers is clearly on the decline.