Among adults, smoking declined over the 10 years between 2013 and 2023, although this decline flattened during the pandemic.
A few years ago the only group where smoking was increasing was pregnant women. The picture is different now. It’s women under 45 from more advantaged social backgrounds who appear to be smoking more over the past decade.
University College London researchers focused on women between 18 and 45 as these are the ages when women are most likely to become pregnant and for whom smoking tobacco carries extra risks.
The study looked at 197,266 adults and estimated the proportion of advantaged women in this age group where smoking rates rose from 12% to 15% between 2013 and 2023.
Conversely in less advantaged women of the same age, smoking rates fell steadily during the same period, from 29% to 22%.
Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson of UCL expressed dismay: “It is concerning to find an apparent increase in smoking among women under 45 from more advantaged social groups in England. We did not see this in all adults or in men of the same age. Reducing smoking is especially important among women in this age group as smoking reduces fertility and increases the chances of complications during pregnancy, miscarriage and poor infant health.”
The researchers used data from the Smoking Toolkit Study, in which a different sample of 1,700 adults in England (who are representative of the population) are interviewed each month.
Senior author, Dr Sharon Cox of UCL explained: “The reasons for the possible increase in smoking among more advantaged women under 45 are unclear. However, it may be that financial pressures of smoking were less influential for this group.
“Some may also have moved to cheaper hand-rolled cigarettes – a trend that was most pronounced among less advantaged female smokers, 68% of whom rolled their own cigarettes by 2023.”
It could be that financial pressures in the last decade have hit women harder, with higher rates of job loss during the pandemic and a greater burden of housework and childcare. What’s more, jobs in which women are overrepresented have been squeezed with teaching and nursing pay freezes.
Cancer Research UK’s prevention policy manager, Alizee Froguel, said: “Smoking is the biggest cause of cancer and death in the UK.
“Smoking rates fall with decisive political action. The Government must implement bold and robust measures to prevent people from taking up smoking, while ensuring that people who already smoke have access to quit tools and adequately funded cessation services.”