More middle-class women under 45 have started smoking

Women smoking

The number of middle- and upper-class women taking to smoking is on the rise, research suggests.

The study by University College London found that while rates of smoking have fallen for working-class women over the last decade, a different shift has been seen among the affluent.

Researchers examined data from October 2013 to October 2023 for 197,266 adults aged 18 and over, of whom 44,052 were women aged 18 to 45.

Smoking prevalence among working-class women and those in lower socioeconomic groups fell from 28.7 per cent to 22.4 per cent across the decade.

In contrast, smoking prevalence rose from 11.7 per cent to 14.9 per cent among women aged 18 to 45 classed as more advantaged, where the highest household earners were in professional, managerial or clerical jobs.

The same was not true for men in all classes, with their rates staying stable across the decade.

The data was drawn from the Smoking Toolkit Study, an ongoing monthly survey of a nationally representative sample of adults in England.

Vaping among women triples 

Furthermore, vaping among all women aged 18 to 45 has more than tripled in a decade, rising from 5.1 per cent to 19.7 per cent between 2013 and 2023, researchers found.

The study was funded by Cancer Research UK and published in BMC Medicine.

Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson, of UCL’s institute of epidemiology and health care, said: “It is concerning to find an apparent increase in smoking among women under 45 from more advantaged social groups in England. We did not see this in all adults or in men of the same age.

“These findings suggest this group may benefit from targeted intervention to prevent the uptake of smoking or relapse.

“Reducing smoking is especially important among women in this age group as smoking reduces fertility and increases the chances of complications during pregnancy, miscarriage and poor infant health.”

The team said further research is needed into whether the smoking increase among more advantaged women relates to those who have never smoked or they are former smokers taking up the habit again.

Senior author Dr Sharon Cox, said: “The reasons for the possible increase in smoking among more advantaged women under 45 are unclear.

“However, it may be that financial pressures of smoking were less influential for this group.

“Some may also have moved to cheaper hand-rolled cigarettes – a trend that was most pronounced among less advantaged female smokers, 68 per cent of whom rolled their own cigarettes by 2023.”

The study also found that the proportion of female smokers aged 18 to 45 who said they mainly or exclusively smoked hand-rolled cigarettes increased from 40.5 per cent to 61.4 per cent across the decade.

Lower disposable income

The researchers said the cost of living crisis may have affected more disadvantaged women’s finances and, therefore, their desire to smoke. It may also have led to a switch to cheaper hand-rolled tobacco.

They said the Covid pandemic “exacerbated gender inequalities, with women experiencing higher rates of job loss”, while job sectors where women are more likely to work have also been affected, such as through teaching and nursing pay freezes lowering disposable income.

The team wrote: “These financial pressures probably contributed to the reduction in smoking prevalence among women from less advantaged social grades and encouraged those who did not stop to switch to hand-rolled products as a way to afford to continue to smoke.”

It comes as a new report from the Royal College of Physicians calls for tighter curbs on youth vaping – including a ban on multi-buy purchases of e-cigarettes.

The study also said the promotion of e-cigarettes on social media must be restricted and called for the introduction of plain packaging.

Action on Smoking and Health survey data shows that the prevalence of vaping among children and young people aged 11 to 17 has more than doubled from 3.2 per cent in 2021 to 7.6 per cent  in 2023.

The Government has pledged to ban disposable vapes and to restrict flavours and packaging as well as increasing tax on e-cigarettes.

On Tuesday, MPs backed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plan to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes, despite opposition from some Tory MPs.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill passed by 383 votes to 67.

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