Relationship of smoking to lifestyle factors in women

The purposes of this research were to examine the relationship of female smoking and lifestyle factors and to assess the applicability of an index of "emancipation" to smoking status in women who live in the Province of Ontario. The index of "emancipation," developed by Eide, was based on distinguishing women who are not following traditional roles as housewives from those who are. While reports in the literature confirm that occupational status, marital status and educational achievement are related to female smoking, little is known about the relationship of smoking to other lifestyle factors (e.g., sexual activity, use of cosmetic agents). Some of these relationships were examined through the secondary analysis of two data sets--one from a population survey design to assess relationships between socio-economic status, sexual behavior, and the occurrence of antibodies to herpes simplex virus type 2, and the other from a case-control study designed to test the hypothesis that oxidative hair dyes were carcinogenic. Five hundred and sixty-six women participated in the former study and 1,155 in the latter. Analyses revealed that smokers are more active sexually than "never" and "ex-smokers" for all groups of women. In addition, a curvilinear relationship with "emancipation" was found in two of the three groups of women. A higher level of smoking was found in women who were in the middle ranges of "emancipation," a finding very similar to that of Eide (1984, 1985). The possibility that increased levels of stress and/or personality characteristics underlie these relationships is discussed.