Smoking in Russia: prevalence, trends and social determinants

Elena Churilova, New Economic School, Russia

Smoking prevalence in Russia has historically been high among men, and significantly increased among women during the transition period to a market economy in 1990s. The previous studies revealed the inverse relationship between smoking and education in male population and urban predominance and changing pattern of smoking in female population (Perlman et al., 2007). Based on harmonized data from nationally representative and health surveys conducted in Russia during 1980-2012, I examined smoking prevalence in Russia, the correlation between smoking and socio-demographic characteristics and biomarkers. The findings reveal that the prevalence of male smoking is stable and high. The female smoking prevalence increased but still lower that than among men. The pattern of number of cigarettes smoked per day by age is bell-shaped for men, but there are no obvious relationship for female. The relationship of smoking and education still strong and inverse for males in all age groups. The lower and middle education increases chances of women to smoke at ages under 45. The relationship of smoking and marital status is strong for females and weak for males.