[Epidemiology of tobacco smoking in France]

The authors analyse the results of the last national survey on the prevalence of tobacco smoking, carried out by the French Committee for health education in 1992. The smoking percentage is analyzed by sex, age, instruction level and, parents smoking behaviour. These results are also compared with data from previous surveys performed since 1977 in young people and since 1974 in adults. A decreasing trend is noticed in young people from 46% in 1977 to 34% in 1992. This optimistic evolution however has to be relativised, taking into account the increase of the consumption level. For adults, the general trend is the stability of the smoking percentage (40% of the population smoke) but the evolution shows totally different results for males and females. The smoking prevalence is decreasing among men (from 59 to 48%), whereas it is increasing among women (from 28 to 33%). Moreover the smoker percentage among young adult women (18-24 year old) is nearly the same as for young adult men (63.4 vs 63.8%). The data provided by this survey enables the authors to set priorities in the campaign against tobacco smoking.