Changes in smoking behaviour among young women over life stage transitions

Abstract

Life changes such as marriage and actual or contemplated pregnancy provide opportunities for targeted interventions to help women quit smoking and not relapse after having a baby. Legislation to control smoking on licensed premises would reduce the social pressure on women to smoke.

Health-Risk Behaviour of Women and Men—Differences According to Partnership and Parenthood. Results of the German Health Update (GEDA) Survey 2009–2010

“…Our work suggests that partner status is strongly associated with smoking in both men and women, irrespective of parenthood, which is consistent with findings from other studies (McDermott et al 2004;Waldron and Lye 1989). The provision of social support for quitting smoking and the social control against relapse is usually given as the explanation for the positive effect of marriage on smoking (Klein et al 2013).…”

“…Research on smoking has shown that married people have higher success in quitting smoking than do unmarried people (McDermott et al 2004;Waldron and Lye 1989). The higher smoking cessation rate among married people is usually discussed in the context of the social support provided by marriage (Waldron and Lye 1989) or the development of a more responsible concern with lifestyle and health when living with a partner (Backett and Davison 1995).…”

“…Women are most motivated to stop smoking during pregnancy because of concerns about the health of their baby (McDermott et al 2004). Many women who plan to become pregnant will stop smoking before pregnancy, while others will quit upon learning they are pregnant (DiClemente et al 2000).…”

Occasional tobacco use among young adult women: a longitudinal analysis of smoking transitions

“…26 Marriage and parenthood modify smoking behaviour. 28 In the multivariate analysis, marriage was statistically significantly associated with not smoking at both time points, whereas the relationship between not smoking and becoming a parent was evident only for surveys 1 and 2. This may be because of a strong association between parenthood and marriage.…”

“…Analysis of differences in sociodemographic and health characteristics between respondents and non-respondents to survey 2 showed that non-respondents were more likely to be smokers, unemployed, have difficulty managing on their available income and have lower levels of education, on the basis of information at survey 1. 28 Thus, non-response may have resulted in underestimation of the prevalence of smoking, and may have decreased the strength of some of the associations that we have reported.…”