The number of smokers stopped falling last year in France, rebounding even among people with the lowest incomes, “in a context of social crisis”, according to figures from Public Health France.
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In 2020, more than three in ten adults aged 18-75 reported smoking at least occasionally (31.8%) and a quarter daily (25.5%), indicates Public Health France this Wednesday May 26 before World No Tobacco Day, Monday May 31.
This marks a halt after several years of seeing the proportion of smokers drop from 34.5% to 30.4% between 2016 and 2019, and daily smokers drop from 29.4% to 24%.
The health agency qualifies as stabilization of the 2020 figures, car “The variations in the prevalence of smoking and daily smoking compared to 2019 are generally not significant”.
On the other hand, the public body notes well ” a raise “ smoking “Among the third of the population with the lowest incomes”, 33.3% daily smokers compared to 29.8% in 2019.
In contrast, in the highest income third of the population, only 18% report daily smokers.
Fewer smokers are trying to quit
Another disturbing signal: “In 2020, 29.9% of daily smokers had attempted to quit for at least one week in the past 12 months”, a proportion “Down significantly compared to 2019 (33.4%)”.
These data come from the barometer carried out each year by SpF, a major survey on health issues conducted by telephone among 14,873 people between January and March 2020 and then between June and July of the same year.
An effect of the Covid-19 crisis?
The health crisis linked to Covid-19 and its economic and social restrictions “Do not seem to have had an unfavorable impact”, since it is at the beginning of 2020, between January and March, that the ” rise ” is observed, followed by « stabilisation » after the first confinement.
Among those surveyed from January to mid-March 2020, 32.7% said they smoked, but this proportion fell to 30.5% among those surveyed in June and July 2020, returning to the level of 2019 (30.4% ).
This stabilization may have a link with the health crisis, believes Loïc Josseran, president of the Alliance against tobacco and professor of public health at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin, because “With each hard phenomenon for the population, we observe an upsurge in addictive behavior”.
With the “Successive reductions” in recent years, “We had done the easy part”, from now on “
it will be complicated to continue ” to decrease because it will be necessary to touch “
the most fragile “, less sensitive to prevention messages.
SpF does not decide on the reasons for this development, but observes that it “Is part of a context of social crisis in France which started at the end of 2018, with the movement of yellow vests “, who “Strongly concerned populations of lower socio-economic level”. “However, among the less privileged populations, cigarettes could be used to manage stress or to overcome daily difficulties, despite the increasing cost of this product. “, Says the agency, citing a French study from 2009 which analyzed why modest smokers are paradoxically less sensitive to policies to increase tobacco prices.
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