Socioeconomic differences in smoking in an urban Swedish population. The bias introduced by non-participation in a mailed questionnaire
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Stockholm Health of the Population Study is a cross-sectional study carried out from 1984-85. Postal questionnaires, telephone interviews and health interviews were used to get information from a sample of 5,199 persons, 18-64 years of age, on health status, risk exposures, healthcare consumption and social factors. Non-participation with respect to the postal questionnaire was 36.8%. With subsequent telephone interviews and an invitation to a health interview, non-participation was reduced to 17.8%. The estimated prevalence of daily smoking increased from 36.1% to 38.7. The non-responders had a higher prevalence of daily smoking in all sub-groups. This effect of the efforts to reduce non-participation differed socially. The prevalence of smoking for men, 40-64 years of age, who were reached by telephone was 60.3%. Male professionals and intermediate non-manual workers, 40-64 years of age reached by telephone had a prevalence of smoking, which was twice as high as for the responders of the questionnaire (62.5 and 26.8%, respectively). In the younger age-group, non-responders had the same socioeconomic pattern in smoking as the responders. Independent of socioeconomic group, there was a tendency of ill or disabled smokers to respond more quickly than healthy smokers. Using a postal questionnaire with a high non-response rate might lead to an overestimation of socioeconomic differences and an underestimation of smoking prevalence.
Original language | English |
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Book series | Scandinavian Journal of Public Health. Supplement |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 2 |
Pages (from-to) | 77-82 |
Number of pages | 6 |
ISSN | 1403-4956 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1993 |
- Adolescent, Adult, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Incidence, Male, Middle Aged, Smoking, Social Class, Socioeconomic Factors, Sweden, Urban Population
Research areas
ID: 40346565