Chinanews client, Beijing, December 24th (Reporter Zhang Ni) What is the connection between tobacco use and poverty?
Is the smoking rate higher in the poorer households?
On the 24th, a survey report released in Beijing showed that the family poverty probability of smokers has indeed increased significantly!
Smoking has a direct impact on poverty, and smoking can also have a significant indirect impact on poverty through chronic diseases.
Photo by Wang Wei issued by Xinshe in the data map
Family poverty probability of smokers increases significantly
Tobacco smoke contains a variety of known carcinogens, which can cause a variety of malignant tumors, as well as diseases of the respiratory system and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems.
According to the World Health Organization report, 1 in 3 smokers die from smoking-related diseases, and the average life span of smokers is 10 years shorter than that of non-smokers.
In addition, people suffering from smoking-related chronic diseases will not only incur treatment costs, but also directly affect income generation due to the loss of working ability, causing families to fall into a situation of poverty and disease.
So, is there a corresponding link between smoking and poverty in China?
On the 24th, the School of Social Development and Public Policy of Beijing Normal University released a project research report-"Evaluation of the Effect of Tobacco Use on Poverty" in Beijing. The survey results revealed some relationships between the two.
According to reports, the research team carried out the "Evaluation Study on the Effect of Tobacco Use on Poverty" from March 2019 to December 2020.
The study first adopted qualitative research methods such as on-site observation and focus interviews. In Pingshan County, Hebei Province and Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, 16 households (including 8 poor households) in 3 villages and 1 community were visited and observed and conducted in-depth interviews. The causal path from smoking to poverty.
In addition, the study used self-made questionnaires to select 26 primary health care institutions in relatively poor areas in 8 provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Guizhou, and Shaanxi, and surveyed 2409 households with 4749 people aged For people aged 40 and above, quantitatively analyze and evaluate the impact of tobacco use on poverty.
The study found that the overall smoking rate of survey subjects was 34.20%, of which 56.40% and 10.49% were male and female respectively.
The average daily smoking amount is 17.5±10, 46.86% of smokers smoke 20 or more cigarettes a day; the average smoking age is 34 years.
It is worth noting that the probability of family poverty among smokers is significantly higher, and the probability of family poverty among smokers is 23.61%, which is significantly higher than the probability of family poverty among non-smokers, 13.81%.
In addition, the poor population is lower than the non-poor population in terms of the health hazards of smoking and the knowledge that smoking can cause chronic diseases.
Photo by Xinshe reporter Zhang Hengwei
There is a vicious circle between smoking and poverty
Why does the probability of family poverty among smokers increase significantly?
Does smoking cause poverty, or does poverty cause smoking?
This seems to have become a "chicken or egg" debate.
Netizens have different opinions on this.
Some people believe that smoking does cause poverty, because smoking increases family expenses and at the same time increases the risk of illness:
Image source: Weibo screenshot
Some netizens believe that it is precisely because of poverty that they choose to smoke to relieve stress:
Image source: Weibo screenshot
In fact, this survey found that smoking and poverty form a vicious circle.
According to the survey data released this time, smoking can significantly increase the prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases such as stroke, bronchitis, hypertension and diabetes.
The prevalence of chronic diseases among smokers is 55.32%, which is significantly higher than the 22.17% among non-smokers.
Compared with non-smokers, the probability of smokers visiting the clinic increased by 51.3%, and the probability of being hospitalized within the year before the survey increased by 53.2%.
In addition, 72.19% of smokers have health care consumption expenditures, which is significantly higher than 9.28% of non-smokers. Compared with non-smokers, smokers have a 63% higher probability of health care consumption expenditures.
This means that smokers’ families spend more on health care than non-smokers’ families.
In addition, the survey also shows that the probability of smoking people with a higher quality of life is 97.34% lower than that of non-smokers.
Photo by Xinshe reporter Zhang Yazi
Therefore, the report analyzes that smoking causes or exacerbates poverty through two paths: lower income and increased medical expenses.
Smoking significantly increases the prevalence of smoking-related chronic diseases, reduces the quality of life of smokers, causes a weakening of the labor force, and reduces income.
In addition, smoking significantly increases the probability of outpatient visits, hospitalization, and medical expenditures of smokers, squeezes family food and education expenditures, and forms and exacerbates the phenomenon of "poverty due to illness and return to poverty due to illness".
Conversely, the predicament caused by poverty will cause the high smoking rate of poor families, and then form a vicious cycle of smoking and poverty.
The report believes that it is necessary to move forward the barriers of health poverty alleviation in the context of China's current policies, combine tobacco control policies with support strategies, and increase tobacco control efforts.
In response to poor people’s low level of awareness of tobacco hazards and relatively sensitive to tobacco prices, through strengthening health education for poor people, raising tobacco taxes and other tobacco control measures, we will effectively implement health and poverty alleviation policies and consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation.
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