Prevalence and trends of cigarette smoking in different occupational groups: Results of the Minnesota Heart Survey 1980-1982 and 1985-1987

The association between smoking and occupational status is exploredusing data from the Minnesota Heart Survey. 7,381 currentlyemployed subjects were included in the study (2,949 from the1980–1982 survey and 4,432 from the 1985–1987 survey).In the first survey the prevalence of current smokers rangedfrom 23 (professional) to 57% (service occupations) in men andfrom 15 (artists and writers) to 59 (repair and craft occupations)in women. Educational level, age, race, and sex were importantpredictors of smoking status in a logistic regression analysisusing combined data from the two surveys; occupational statuswas significantly associated with smoking after controllingfor these covariables. Public health efforts should focus moreon preventing smoking in lower educational groups and in thoseoccupational groups that have the highest prevalence of smoking.