Cross-sectional survey on cigarette smoking in Chinese high-income areas

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate smoking status and its influencing factors in high-income areas of China. DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: High-income areas in China. PARTICIPANTS: 4064 persons aged 15 years or older from the survey results in Global Adult Tobacco Survey-China 2018. METHODS: Gross national income data were used to determine China’s high-income economic regions, and the results of the survey in Global Adult Tobacco Survey-China 2018 were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 4064 people were included in our study, including 881 current smokers, 2884 who had never smoked and 299 who had quit smoking. Using the standardised rate method, the standardised smoking rates in high-income and non-high-income areas in China were calculated to be 23.56% and 27.77%, respectively. Men, high school education or below, knowledge of e-cigarette information, permission to smoke at home and people with poor smoking health literacy are the main influencing factors of smokers in high-income areas of China. CONCLUSION: The smoking rate of people in China’s high-income areas is lower than the overall smoking rate in China, and we should increase the public awareness that smoking is harmful to health, encourage the prohibition of smoking at home, increase investment in higher education and improve residents’ smoking health literacy level. The purpose of this study was to encourage reduction in the rate of smoking and better control the prevalence of smoking.