Insights into social disparities in smoking prevalence using Mosaic, a novel measure of socioeconomic status: an analysis using a large primary care dataset

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Sarah Lewis¹  Lisa Szatkowski²  Aarohi Sharma³ 

[1] UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies and University of Nottingham Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, Clinical Sciences Building, Nottingham City Hospital, NG5 1PB, Nottingham, UK;UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies and University of Nottingham Division of Primary Care, Queen's Medical Centre, NG7 2UH, Nottingham, UK;University of Nottingham Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, Clinical Sciences Building, Nottingham City Hospital, NG5 1PB, Nottingham, UK;

关键词: Smoking Prevalence;    Postcode Area;    High Smoking Prevalence;    Townsend Score;    Mosaic Type;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-10-755

 received in 2010-07-27, accepted in 2010-12-07,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThere are well-established socio-economic differences in the prevalence of smoking in the UK, but conventional socio-economic measures may not capture the range and degree of these associations. We have used a commercial geodemographic profiling system, Mosaic, to explore associations with smoking prevalence in a large primary care dataset and to establish whether this tool provides new insights into socio-economic determinants of smoking.MethodsWe analysed anonymised data on over 2 million patients from The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database, linked via patients' postcodes to Mosaic classifications (11 groups and 61 types) and quintiles of Townsend Index of Multiple Deprivation. Patients' current smoking status was identified using Read Codes, and logistic regression was used to explore the associations between the available measures of socioeconomic status and smoking prevalence.ResultsAs anticipated, smoking prevalence increased with increasing deprivation according to the Townsend Index (age and sex adjusted OR for highest vs lowest quintile 2.96, 95% CI 2.92-2.99). There were more marked differences in prevalence across Mosaic groups (OR for group G vs group A 4.41, 95% CI 4.33-4.49). Across the 61 Mosaic types, smoking prevalence varied from 8.6% to 42.7%. Mosaic types with high smoking prevalence were characterised by relative deprivation, but also more specifically by single-parent households living in public rented accommodation in areas with little community support, having no access to a car, few qualifications and high TV viewing behaviour.ConclusionConventional socio-economic measures may underplay social disparities in smoking prevalence. Newer classification systems, such as Mosaic, encompass a wider range of demographic, lifestyle and behaviour data, and are valuable in identifying characteristics of groups of heavy smokers which might be used to tailor cessation interventions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Sharma et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.