Dear Adam and colleagues
Just a quick reply to one point in Adams
mailing :
> when introduced generally, does the prevalence of smoking go
> down more in social classes IV and V than in social classes I and II.
I have a paper coming up in the Journal of Epidemiology
and Community Health in which it appeared, to my
amazement, that class differences in smoking and most
other 'classic' CV risk factors has not widened between
the mid 1980s and mid 1990s. When I tried to find some
literature to situate this, the very few studies I could find
covering the same period in fact showed the same.
There is no doubt that the anti smoking message had
a bigger effect on middle class people at the
beginning, but this no longer seems to be the case.
It also remains to be seen whether this will eventually
result in less widening of mortality differences between
the social classes, one would not expect it to happen
for a while.
I have long thought that an economist might be able
to throw light on a hunch I have. This is that there
is more to be gained by extending life expectancy
for a middle class person, simply because 'more
life' for them = 'more high quality life'. Whereas
if you are a poor person, the prospect of an extra
2 years spent on £60 a week in a damp flat
in a run down area is hardly a reason to forgo
the immediate pleasure of smoking. I suspect there
are more technical terms which could be applied
to this!
Mel
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