The effect of work environment and heavy smoking on the social inequalities in smoking cessation

Objectives. To investigate social differences with regard to smoking cessation in Denmark. Methods. Social differences in smoking cessation were estimated from 3606 smokers from the Danish National Work Environment Cohort Study in 1990, 1995 and 2000. The differences were investigated using heavy smoking and four work environment factors as explanatory variables. Results. The odds ratio for cessation was more than twice as high in social class I compared with social class V. When heavy smoking was controlled, this explained 28% of social differences, the work-environment factors alone explained 36% of social differences, and together the factors explained 55% of social differences. Conclusions. A large proportion of the social differences in smoking cessation could be explained by differences in work-environment exposures and smoking intensity. (C) 2003 The Royal Institute of Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.