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Life Course Changes in Smoking by Gender and Education: A Cohort Comparison Across France and the United States

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An Erratum to this article was published on 30 March 2017

Abstract

Widening of educational disparities and a narrowing female advantage in mortality stem in good part from disparities in smoking. The changes in smoking and mortality disparities across cohorts and countries have been explained by an epidemic model of cigarette use but are also related to life course changes. To better describe and understand changing disparities over the life course, we compare age patterns of smoking in three cohorts and two nations (France and the US) using smoking history measures from the 2010 French health barometer (N = 20,940) and the 2010 US National Health Interview Survey Sample Adult File (N = 20,444). The results demonstrate statistically significant widening of gender and educational differences from adolescence to early and middle adulthood, thus accentuating the disparities already emerging during adolescence. In addition, the widening disparities over the life course have been changing across cohorts: age differences in educational disparities have grown in recent cohorts (especially in France), while age differences in gender disparities have narrowed. The findings highlight the multiple sources of inequality in smoking and health in high-income nations.

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Acknowledgements

This Project received travel support from the Institut National d’Etudes Demographiques Direction des Relations Internationales et des Partenariates, and funding from the Institut National d’Etudes Demographiques and Institut National du Cancer (COTCEDIS Project “Consommation de tabac et de cannabis: evolution et dynamiques de construction des inegalites sociales,” Grant No. 2011-250).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, 80309-0483, USA

    Fred C. Pampel

  2. Institut de recherche et documentation en économie de la santé (Irdes), 117 bis rue Manin, 75019, Paris, France

    Damien Bricard

  3. Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques, 133, boulevard Davout, 75020, Paris, France

    Damien Bricard, Myriam Khlat & Stéphane Legleye

  4. CESP, Fac. de médecine - Univ. Paris-Sud, Fac. de médecine - UVSQ, INSERM, Université Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, 94805, Paris, France

    Stéphane Legleye

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  1. Fred C. Pampel
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Correspondence to Fred C. Pampel.

Additional information

The original version of this article was revised. The equation under the section Educational Differences over the Life Course has been mentioned incorrectly in the original version. It is corrected in the article.

An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11113-017-9428-2.

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Pampel, F.C., Bricard, D., Khlat, M. et al. Life Course Changes in Smoking by Gender and Education: A Cohort Comparison Across France and the United States. Popul Res Policy Rev 36, 309–330 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-016-9424-y

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