Objective: To study the inter-population and inter-individual effect of education attainment on men's behavior of smoking in China.
Method: A cross-sectional study of 7,415 men, aged 35-59 years, from 15 population samples was carried out in 1998. Information on education attainment and smoking was collected by standardized questionnaires. The population samples were divided into 2 groups according to the proportion of men with college or above education attainment: group I had an average 25.8% of men with college or above education attainment, and group II had an average 2.0% of men with college or above education attainment.
Results: (1) In group I, the percent of ever smokers, current smokers, deeper smoker, and ever smokers with cessation due to disease and the average number of cigarettes per day for the smokers were significantly lower than in group II (66.2%, 56.4%, 34.4%, 47.8%, 17.2 cigarettes/day vs 75.8%, 64.4%, 40.3%, 58.4%, 20.4 cigarettes/day, respectively). (2) The percent of current smokers and the number of cigarettes decreased with increased education attainment in both groups. Taking the men with college or above education attainment in group I as reference, the odd ratio of smoking for those with high school education in group I was 1.8 (95% CI: 1.5-2.1), for those with middle school or lower education in group I was 2.0(95% CI: 1.7-2.5), for those with college or above education in group II was 1.4(95% CI: 0.9-2.1), for those with high school education in group II was 1.7(95% CI: 1.4-2.1), and for those with middle school or lower education in group II was 2.4 (95% CI: 2.1-2.8).
Conclusion: Smoking behavior was affected by both individual education attainment and population education level. Smoking cessation measures should be focused on the development of better anti-smoking environment, such as education development, health promotion, etc.