[Psychosocial determinants of smoking]

Prevalence of smoking is high in the middle age Polish population despite of wide spread knowledge on health hazards. The goal of the paper was to assess the relation between smoking with awareness of smoking hazards and psychosocial factors related to increased risk of coronary heart disease. The studied group was a random sample of residents of Cracow aged between 45-64 years. Out of 1756 men and 1788 women, selected were 1154 men and 1156 women (65%) which participated in the study. In the studied group 40% of men and 20% of women were smokers. Over 95% of people knew that smoking is a risk factor of myocardial infarction. However 15% shared the opinion that quitting smoking is also a risk factor of myocardial infarction. The latter opinion was more frequent in persons with low education and in smokers. Smoking men and women were more depressive. There were some differences in relations between smoking and other psychosocial factors studied between men and women. In men, smokers reported higher effort and lower reward at work. Perceived general control and control over life were related to smoking in women. In persons for whom health argument is not sufficient to refrain from smoking or quit smoking, the effectiveness of anti-smoking program might depend on relating it to depressive symptoms and on applying different motivation in men and women by depending on psychosocial characteristics.