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Published on: February 12, 2015
Education and smoking: confounding or effect modification by phenotypic personality traits?
Benjamin Chapman1, Kevin Fiscella, Paul Duberstein
1Laboratory of Personality and Development, Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, 300 Crittenden, Rochester, NY 14642, USA. ben_chapman@urmc.rochester.edu
Summary
Greater education is linked to lower smoking rates, independent of financial status or personality. Personality traits like conscientiousness and openness also influence smoking behaviors, suggesting combined approaches for prevention.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral epidemiology
- Psychological science
- Public health research
Background:
- Socioeconomic status (SES), particularly financial measures, and personality traits are potential confounders of the relationship between education and smoking patterns.
- Existing research has not fully elucidated the independent contributions of education, financial SES, and personality to smoking behaviors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if financial SES or personality traits confound the association between education and never smoking or former smoking.
- To investigate the relationship between specific personality traits (Neuroticism, Conscientiousness) and smoking abstinence or cessation.
- To examine potential interactions between education and personality in influencing smoking status.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of data from the Midlife Development in the US National Survey, including 2,429 participants.
- Classification of participants into three smoking status groups: current (n=695), former (n=999), and never smokers (n=735).
- Application of multinomial logistic regression models to assess the relationships between education, SES, personality, and smoking patterns.
Main Results:
- Higher educational attainment was significantly associated with both never smoking and former smoking, without confounding by financial SES or personality.
- Never smoking correlated with lower Openness and higher Conscientiousness; smoking cessation was associated with higher Neuroticism.
- Education demonstrated additive interactions with Conscientiousness (increasing probability of never smoking) and Openness (decreasing probability of never smoking).
Conclusions:
- Education and personality traits represent independent risk factors for smoking in epidemiological and clinical contexts.
- The impact of education on smoking may be modulated by individual personality dispositions.
- Smoking prevention and intervention strategies should integrate considerations of both educational background and personality traits.
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