Cigarette smoking in Poland in 2019: the continuing decline in smoking prevalence

Abstract

The aim of the study: To present comprehensive national estimates of prevalence of cigarette smoking by sociodemographic characteristics in Poland in 2019 and to analyse the changes in smoking prevalence in the Polish population after 2014. Material and methods: A cross-sectional survey on a representative sample of adult Polish population was conducted on 4-11 July 2019 by the Public Opinion Research Center (Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej). A total of 1016 adults (42.4% men and 57.6% women) aged 20 years and older were included in the analysis. Data for smoking prevalence were analysed according to gender, age groups, birth cohorts, place of residence and education. Statistical analysis was done using Statistica 13.1 and assumed a significance level of p < 0.05. Results: Of the total sample population, 21.8% of Polish adults declared they are daily smokers (in the general population this would translate to 6.8 million Poles, including 3.9 million men and 2.9 million women), 27.8% that they are ex-smokers and 50.4% that they never smoked tobacco. More men than women declared they are daily smokers (26.9% vs 18.1%) and ex-smokers (36.2% vs 21.5%), and women were more likely to declare they are never smokers than men (60.3% vs 36.9%). Conclusions: Poland has experienced a decrease in smoking prevalence since 1976 in men and since 1982 in women. In 2019 the most important factor shaping smoking prevalence in Poland was education. Sex differences in smoking rates have been converging since late 1970s. Those with lower levels of education, as well as middle-aged men and women (45-64 years old) were found to have the highest levels of daily smoking and should be offered targeted support promoting smoking cessation. There is an urgent need to bring back and strengthen a national tobacco control strategy in Poland. This should include systematic annual surveys of smoking behaviours on a representative sample of Polish population using a standardised methodology.

Use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) in Poland in 2019

“…It was a multitask study with section devoted to using ENDS among others. The method has been already described in detail elsewhere [2]. Faceto-face interviews were carried out by the Public Opinion Research Center using the computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) technique [17].…”

“…The sampling frame included stratification according to territorial localization, size of the place of residence, gender and age. The sampling frame ensured that the study sample corresponded with the structure of the general Polish population in 2019 (described elsewhere [2]).…”

“…The number of nationally representative surveys on prevalence of ENDS use in adults in Poland is scarce. However, a 2019 survey carried out by the Public Opinion Research Center on a representative sample of Polish adults [2] did include questions about ENDS use. The aim of this study is to analyse the results of this survey and describe the prevalence of ENDS use in Poland in 2019.…”

History of smoking cessation treatment in Poland – the strengthening role of cytisine as the most effective and safe pharmacotherapy

“…The main difference between Poland and the other western countries is the availability and sale, on a population scale, of a plant-based drug called cytisine. While in 2019 there were 6.8 million of smokers in Poland [13], the annual sale of cytisine alone reaches hundreds of thousands of packages. This drug was developed over half a century ago by two visionary Bulgarian scientists, XD Paskov and VK Dobrev in Bulgaria [42][43][44][45][46][47] and it was in use for several decades in many eastern European countries that were under the Soviet Bloc rule, but on a very small scale [20,29,30,40,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54].…”

“…Tobacco sales fell from about 100 billion cigarettes in the early 1990s to less than 40 billion in 2017 (Fig. 1) and prevalence of smoking declined from 73% in 1976 to 24% in 2019 in men, and from 30% in 1982 to 18% in 2019 in women [1,12,13] resulting in a significant reduction in the incidence and mortality from tobacco related diseases [1,3,14,15]. Furthermore, according to the recent international publications, after 1990 Poland became one of the countries with the fastest decline in cigarette consumption as well as morbidity and mortality resulting from tobacco-related diseases (Figs.…”