Introduction:Smoking is the largest avoidable health risk factor in Europe. The aim of this paper is to assess the attitude towards tobacco smoking among participants of PURE Poland Study. Material and methods: Analysis of attitude towards tobacco smoking was carried out between 2007 and 2010 in a cohort consisting of 2,036 subjects aged from 30 to 85, living in Wroclaw and surrounding municipalities, enrolled in the PURE (Prospective Urban and Rural Epidemiological) Study. We analyzed percentage of current smokers, ex-smokers, and never smokers in the study population. The collected data was analyzed according to sex, age, place of residence, and education. The significance level was p ≤ 0.05. Results: Among surveyed, 21.0% were current smokers, 31.7% were ex-smokers, and 47.3% have never smoked. 26.4% of rural population were current smokers, while in urban population it was only 17.2%. Place of residence in the rural area increases the risk of being a current smoker 1.7-fold (OR = 1.7269, CI 1.3924 to 2.1418); on the other hand, living in an urban area, increases the chance of quitting smoking 2.3-fold (OR = 2.3044, CI 1.7897 to 2.9671). 15.1% of people with higher education were current smokers in comparison to 30.2% with vocational education. Men have taken on smoking significantly earlier (19.2 SD ±4.6) than women (20.4 SD ±4.4), and smoked more cigarettes a day than women (17.5 cigarette a day SD ±9.1 vs. 13.1 cigarette a day SD ±9.0). Conclusions:The percentage of current smokers is much higher among rural than urban dwellers. Recently, more people quit smoking in urban than rural areas.KeY WOrDS: tobacco, urban, rural, PURE study. Key findingS1. The percentage of current smokers is much higher among rural than urban dwellers. 2. Place of residence (rural) became more significant differentiating factor of smoking than sex, unlike several decades ago. 3. Recently, more people quit smoking in urban than rural areas. 4. The percentage of current smokers is the highest among the youngest age group (30-44 years). 5. Age of initiation of smoking depends on birth cohort (initiation is earlier along with decreasing age of study population). 6. Women initiate smoking later than men.

Introduction:The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life of participants enrolled in PURE Poland study. Material and methods:Anonymous survey of quality of life was carried out between 2007 and 2010 as an additional study among population of Lower Silesia in Poland enrolled in PURE Poland study. Survey covered 1053 people of PURE Poland study population, who agreed to complete the survey. Three age groups were distinguished. The research was conducted with use of international quality of life questionnaire WHOQOL-BREF. Data was analyzed in respect to gender, age, civil status, level of education, and current sense of being diseased or diseased free. Results: The majority of respondents assessed their subjective quality of life (S-QoL) as good or very good. Males assessed S-QoL significantly higher than females, married people evaluated it higher than people living alone, people with higher education rated it higher than people with primary education. Respondents showed highest results in physical domain of quality of life and lowest in the environment domain of quality of life. The S-QoL was correlated with all domains but mostly with psychological domain of quality of life. Conclusions: Quality of life of the majority of respondents was good or very good. Further research should be conducted with the use of a set of different epidemiological variables (social, institutional, and general environment) and tests, and obtained results could become a base for constructing a model of self-assessed quality of life by the citizens of Wroclaw.