Beyond smoking prevalence : understanding smoking behaviour patterns in young adults and their associations with residential environment features

Smoking continues to be the leading cause of preventable premature death worldwide, accounting for more than 7 million deaths per year. Tobacco use is of particular concern among young adults, who have the highest prevalence of smoking of all age groups in Canada and many other developed nations. Several residential environment features, including the presence and density of tobacco retail and the presence of smoker accommodation facilities have been found to be associated with smoking initiation, prevalence, quit attempts and cessation rates. However, findings from this research continue to be inconsistent. I propose in this dissertation that these inconsistencies are partly due to 1) a lack of consideration of the different smoking behaviour patterns that young adults may go through, 2) the paucity of research examining associations between these patterns and specific residential environment characteristics, and 3) the potential for these associations to be stronger at different spatial scales. The overarching aim of this dissertation is to advance knowledge regarding smoking behaviour patterns among young adults and their association with residential environment features. The specific objectives are: 1) to examine whether smoking behaviour in young adults can be better understood by examining smoking behaviour patterns over time, 2) to examine associations between these patterns and residential environment features, and 3) to explore how these associations may vary in terms of presence and strength across different spatial scales. Data stem from the Interdisciplinary Study of Inequalities in Smoking (ISIS), a cohort study of 2093 young adults aged 18 to 25 years at baseline residing in Montreal, Canada, conceived with the objective of examining the interactive role of individual and contextual factors in the production of social inequalities in smoking. Three different measures were examined: 1) retrospective 2-year smoking behaviour patterns, 2) prospective 2-year smoking behaviour patterns, and 3) prospective 4-year smoking behaviour patterns. Residential environment features were measured based on two sources: data obtained through direct observation of the street blocks where participants resided, and DMTI Inc.’s Enhanced Points of Interest Database©, which provides a collection of geocoded address points including tobacco retail stores. Associations between smoking behaviour patterns and residential environment features were tested using multilevel multinomial models. Findings from this dissertation highlight the need to examine distinct smoking behaviour patterns among young adults and how they may be associated with specific features of residential environments. Specifically, these results suggest a potential role of a greater proximal and local presence and density of tobacco retail in exacerbating variable smoking patterns in this age group as well as in sustaining tobacco use among persistent smokers. Moreover, they highlight the potential influence of a greater regional presence of smoker accommodation facilities on persistent smoking patterns. Finally, the presence of scale-specific associations suggests that processes linking these features and distinct smoking patterns may operate at different spatial scales. This thesis contributes to the literature on residential environments and smoking by underscoring the added value of examining distinct smoking behaviour patterns and how these may be influenced by residential environment features. This research highlights the need to extend the examination of smoking outcomes to include distinct behavioural patterns that delve into how tobacco use may progress over time and how these patterns may be associated with residential environment features. Furthermore, these results highlight the importance of examining different spatial definitions to advance knowledge concerning the scales at which these features may exert a stronger influence on smoking behaviour patterns. Taken together, these findings can help orient public health research and intervention seeking to curb smoking among young adults by identifying specific smoking patterns and the environmental features that may play an important role in shaping them, as well as the geographic scales at which processes linking patterns and features may operate. Future research in this area should continue to examine how environmental features may influence smoking and other health behaviour patterns not only in young adults but potentially in other populations.

Keyphrases: Smoking behaviour patterns, Young adults, Residential environments, Spatial scale, Multilevel, Health behaviour