Individuals with long-term illness, disability or infirmity are more likely to smoke than healthy controls: An instrumental variable analysis
Despite the prevalence of smoking cessation programs and public health campaigns, individuals with long-term illness, disability, or infirmity have been found to smoke more often than those without such conditions, leading to worsening health. However, the available literature has mainly focused on...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1015607/full |
| _version_ | 1797951867579269120 |
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| author | Xingzuo Zhou Yiang Li Tianning Zhu Yiran Xu |
| author_facet | Xingzuo Zhou Yiang Li Tianning Zhu Yiran Xu |
| author_sort | Xingzuo Zhou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite the prevalence of smoking cessation programs and public health campaigns, individuals with long-term illness, disability, or infirmity have been found to smoke more often than those without such conditions, leading to worsening health. However, the available literature has mainly focused on the association between long-term illness and smoking, which might suffer from the possible bidirectional influence, while few studies have examined the potential causal effect of long-term illness on smoking. This gap in knowledge can be addressed using an instrumental variable analysis that uses a third variable as an instrument between the endogenous independent and dependent variables and allows the identification of the direction of causality under the discussed assumptions. Our study analyzes the UK General Household Survey in 2006, covering a nationally representative 13,585 households. We exploited the number of vehicles as the instrumental variable for long-term illness, disability, or infirmity as vehicle numbers may be related to illness based on the notion that these individuals are less likely to drive, but that vehicle number may have no relationship to the likelihood of smoking. Our results suggested that chronic illness status causes a significantly 28% higher probability of smoking. The findings have wide implications for public health policymakers to design a more accessible campaign around smoking and for psychologists and doctors to take targeted care for the welfare of individuals with long-term illnesses. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T22:37:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7655b313b4ba4ab5847ea05a288617b8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-2565 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T22:37:23Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-7655b313b4ba4ab5847ea05a288617b82023-01-16T10:00:05ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652023-01-011010.3389/fpubh.2022.10156071015607Individuals with long-term illness, disability or infirmity are more likely to smoke than healthy controls: An instrumental variable analysisXingzuo Zhou0Yiang Li1Tianning Zhu2Yiran Xu3Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, United KingdomDepartment of Sociology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United StatesDepartment of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United KingdomCentre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United KingdomDespite the prevalence of smoking cessation programs and public health campaigns, individuals with long-term illness, disability, or infirmity have been found to smoke more often than those without such conditions, leading to worsening health. However, the available literature has mainly focused on the association between long-term illness and smoking, which might suffer from the possible bidirectional influence, while few studies have examined the potential causal effect of long-term illness on smoking. This gap in knowledge can be addressed using an instrumental variable analysis that uses a third variable as an instrument between the endogenous independent and dependent variables and allows the identification of the direction of causality under the discussed assumptions. Our study analyzes the UK General Household Survey in 2006, covering a nationally representative 13,585 households. We exploited the number of vehicles as the instrumental variable for long-term illness, disability, or infirmity as vehicle numbers may be related to illness based on the notion that these individuals are less likely to drive, but that vehicle number may have no relationship to the likelihood of smoking. Our results suggested that chronic illness status causes a significantly 28% higher probability of smoking. The findings have wide implications for public health policymakers to design a more accessible campaign around smoking and for psychologists and doctors to take targeted care for the welfare of individuals with long-term illnesses.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1015607/fullsmokinglong-term illness or disabilitycausal inferenceinstrumental variable (IV)public healthsimultaneous effect |
| spellingShingle | Xingzuo Zhou Yiang Li Tianning Zhu Yiran Xu Individuals with long-term illness, disability or infirmity are more likely to smoke than healthy controls: An instrumental variable analysis Frontiers in Public Health smoking long-term illness or disability causal inference instrumental variable (IV) public health simultaneous effect |
| title | Individuals with long-term illness, disability or infirmity are more likely to smoke than healthy controls: An instrumental variable analysis |
| title_full | Individuals with long-term illness, disability or infirmity are more likely to smoke than healthy controls: An instrumental variable analysis |
| title_fullStr | Individuals with long-term illness, disability or infirmity are more likely to smoke than healthy controls: An instrumental variable analysis |
| title_full_unstemmed | Individuals with long-term illness, disability or infirmity are more likely to smoke than healthy controls: An instrumental variable analysis |
| title_short | Individuals with long-term illness, disability or infirmity are more likely to smoke than healthy controls: An instrumental variable analysis |
| title_sort | individuals with long term illness disability or infirmity are more likely to smoke than healthy controls an instrumental variable analysis |
| topic | smoking long-term illness or disability causal inference instrumental variable (IV) public health simultaneous effect |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1015607/full |
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