Smoking prevalence and its characteristics among the population aged 25-64 years according to the postal surveys of Kiev residents

Tobacco smoking (TS) is considered one of the main negative factors influencing health of Ukraine’s population. To shape policies aimed to prevent and decrease harmful effects of TS on health and economics, it is necessary to have evidence-based information about prevalence of this risk factor in population and trends of its change over time.PURPOSE: to estimate the tobacco smoking prevalence and its characteristics in the population of Kiev aged 25-64 years.MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data were obtained from five postal surveys of the population within the framework of CINDI (WHO). Five of these surveys were conducted in 2002-2010 with 9034 participants.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Prevalence and trends of occasional smoking have no gender differences (in 2002, 8.1% of men and 8.7% of women were occasional smokers, in 2010 – 5.9% and 6.3% respectively). The standardized prevalence rate of daily TS among men did not change significantly (44.0 and 41.9%), smoking intensity decreased on average by one cigarette per day. A steady upward trend of smoking prevalence was recorded in women overall (from 16.3 to 19.3%), accompanied by the increase of TS intensity on average by one cigarette per day. A significant difference of smoking prevalence by educational level and marital status was revealed. Physicians are not enough involved in smoking cessation.CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of TS in the population of Kiev city aged 25-64 is still high. In 2002-2010, stabilization of smoking prevalence among men and its increase in women was observed.