Women's smoking trends and awareness of health risk

Abstract

National data on smoking cessation rates indicate that female smokers may have more difficulty than male smokers in quitting smoking. To test the hypothesis that awareness of risk of smoking and personal vulnerability may be not as strong in female as in male smokers, we conducted a series of telephone interviews dealing with smokers' awareness and knowledge of the recent Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, and their perception of and attitudes toward personal risk. The results indicated no marked sex difference in awareness of the Surgeon General's Report, but showed that significantly more female than male smokers worried about what they heard and read about the risk of smoking. A larger percentage of female smokers attributed a greater health risk from smoking to men than to women, thus suggesting that women's feelings of personal vulnerability may be weaker than men's.