The Association between Socioeconomic Status, Smoking, and Chronic Disease in Inner Mongolia in Northern China

The interactive associations of socioeconomic status (SES) and smoking with chronic disease were investigated with a view to expanding the evidence to inform tobacco policies and interventions in Northern China. The fifth NHSS (National Health Service Survey) 2013 in Inner Mongolia was a population-based survey of national residents, aged 15 years and older, in which multi-stage stratified cluster sampling methods were used to survey 13,554 residents. The SES was measured by scores derived from levels of education level and household annual income. Multivariate logistic regression models were performed to determine the association between SES, smoking, and chronic disease adjusted by confounders. Three thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven residents (32.29%) were identified as current smokers and 3520 residents (26.01%) had been diagnosed with chronic diseases. In the males, former smoking with low SES had the highest risk of one chronic disease, with an odds ratio (OR) of 2.505 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] (OR = 2.505, 95% CI: 1.635⁻3.837) or multiple chronic diseases (OR = 2.631, 95% CI: 1.321⁻5.243). In the females, current smoking with low SES had the highest risk of one chronic disease (OR = 3.044, 95% CI: 2.158⁻4.292). The conclusion of this study was that residents with combined ever-smoking and low SES deserved more attention in the prevention and control of chronic disease.