smoking - factor 3 in health inequality

FACTOR 3: SMOKING

Smoking causes health inequalities:

Smoking is a crucial factor behind the health outcomes of an individual. Smoking is an addiction and it has been linked to very serious diseases such as lung disease, cancer, heart disease and early death. The choice to start and then continue to smoke makes it significantly more likely that someone will suffer from poor health.

There are over 10,000 smoking related deaths in Scotland, meaning that around 1 out of 5 of all deaths in Scotland are smoking related.

There are 128,000 smoking-related hospital admissions in Scotland every year; that’s 15 people per hour.

Low income has a major role on smoking:

35% of adults in the 20% most deprived areas of Scotland smoke, compared to 11% of people in the 20% least deprived areas of Scotland.

In the UK, 1.7 million households in poverty include an adult who smokes. However, 28% of those households could be lifted out of poverty if the adults stopped smoking.

In the UK, around 1 in 4 (23%) people in routine and manual occupations smoked, 2.5 times higher than people in managerial and professional occupations (9%).