Oh et al. BMC Public Health 2010, 10:74 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/10/74 Table 2 Factors associated with ever smokers compared to never smokers by country, weighted. Age 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ Age at last education <16 16-19 20-25 >25 Marital status Married Divorced/Separated Widowed Never married Unmarried couple Income Well below the median Below the median Around the median Above the median Well above the median Refused to answer Friends/family smoke None Few Less than half About half or more Parents smoke No Yes All (n = 5000) OR (95% CI) 1.00 1.43 (1.10, 1.86) 1.58 (1.20, 2.08) 1.77 (1.33, 2.34) 1.68 (1.28, 2.20) 0.98 (0.75, 1.26) 1.09 (0.88, 1.36) 0.85 (0.68, 1.07) 1.00 1.00 1.49 (1.23, 1.80) 0.83 (0.67, 1.04) 1.13 (0.94, 1.35) 1.26 (1.01, 1.58) 1.27 (1.00, 1.61) 1.12 (0.94, 1.33) 1.00 1.17 (0.97, 1.41) 0.97 (0.68, 1.36) 0.87 (0.72, 1.04) 1.00 1.45 (1.23, 1.71) 2.35 (1.87, 2.95) 3.97 (3.22, 4.88) 1.00 1.67 (1.47, 1.89) France (n = 1000) OR (95% CI) 1.00 2.02 (1.08,3.78) 1.33 (0.71, 2.49) 1.53 (0.83, 2.92) 1.53 (0.83, 2.79) 0.56 (0.25, 1.26) 0.63 (0.30, 1.33) 0.55 (0.26, 1.13) 1.00 1.00 1.16 (0.79, 1.67) 1.44 (0.67, 3.10) 1.86 (1.14, 3.03) 1.22 (0.82, 1.82) 1.57 (0.90, 2.74) 1.17 (0.79, 1.74) 1.00 1.61 (1.05, 2.49) 0.85 (0.36, 2.01) 1.14 (0.75, 1.74) 1.00 1.34 (0.89, 2.02) 1.66 (1.00, 2.76) 2.57 (1.64, 4.02) 1.00 2.21 (1.65, 2.96) Ireland (n = 1000) OR (95% CI) 1.00 1.66 (1.01, 2.75) 1.81 (1.04, 3.15) 1.70 (0.95, 3.05) 1.69 (0.94, 3.04) 1.16 (0.57, 2.37) 1.00 (0.54, 1.87) 0.66 (0.35, 1.25) 1.00 1.00 1.91 (1.12, 3.25) 0.77 (0.49, 1.20) 1.28 (0.90, 1.85) 1.85 (0.85, 4.02) 1.45 (0.83, 2.54) 1.16 (0.80, 1.69) 1.00 1.03 (0.69, 1.53) 0.47 (0.21, 1.04) 0.88 (0.57, 1.35) 1.00 1.73 (1.20, 2.50) 2.25 (1.33, 3.81) 4.03 (2.46, 6.63) 1.00 1.40 (1.05, 1.87) Italy (n = 1000) OR (95% CI) 1.00 1.44 (0.73, 2.83) 1.82 (0.90, 3.67) 2.66 (1.30, 5.45) 1.98 (0.99, 3.93) 0.89 (0.52, 1.52) 1.13 (0.69, 1.83) 0.96 (0.59, 1.57) 1.00 1.00 2.00 (1.20, 3.35) 0.89 (0.54, 1.46) 0.97 (0.66, 1.41) 1.66 (0.76, 3.60) 1.11 (0.71, 1.75) 0.98 (0.67, 1.43) 1.00 1.00 (0.57, 1.76) 2.13 (0.23, 20.14) 0.56 (0.37, 0.85) 1.00 0.97 (0.67, 1.41) 1.25 (0.74, 2.09) 3.17 (2.08, 4.85) 1.00 1.28 (0.97, 1.68) Czech Republic (n = 1000) OR (95% CI) 1.00 0.82 (0.44, 1.55) 1.11 (0.54, 2.29) 1.37 (0.66, 2.86) 1.67 (0.81, 3.46) 0.86 (0.39, 1.90) 1.23 (0.72, 2.08) 0.91 (0.52, 1.58) 1.00 1.00 1.42 (0.94, 2.16) 0.53 (0.33, 0.84) 1.21 (0.75, 1.94) 1.64 (0.48, 5.59) 0.73 (0.40, 1.34) 1.23 (0.81, 1.86) 1.00 1.16 (0.76, 1.79) 2.14 (0.42, 10.79) 0.81 (0.52, 1.25) 1.00 3.09 (1.79, 5.33) 8.40 (4.48, 15.74) 8.26 (4.58, 14.89) 1.00 2.21 (1.65, 2.96) Page 5 of 11 Sweden (n = 1000) OR (95% CI) 1.00 1.56 (0.81, 3.01) 2.50 (1.29, 4.83) 2.57 (1.33, 4.94) 2.61 (1.37, 4.96) 0.96 (0.59, 1.55) 1.34 (0.92, 1.96) 0.83 (0.56, 1.24) 1.00 1.00 1.73 (1.14, 2.63) 1.36 (0.79, 2.36) 0.89 (0.56, 1.39) 1.20 (0.83, 1.73) 1.87 (0.93, 3.75) 1.03 (0.67, 1.59) 1.00 1.13 (0.75, 1.72) 1.42 (0.84, 2.43) 0.90 (0.60, 1.34) 1.00 1.49 (1.09, 2.04) 2.69 (1.58, 4.56) 12.37 (5.99, 25.55) 1.00 1.54 (1.16, 2.04) Odds ratios (ever smoker: never smoker) adjusted for all above listed variables (and country for the combined analysis). to start smoking at a younger age than those who did not cite these reasons. Women who smoked to manage stress or to feel less depressed were more likely to start at an older age (Table 6). Discussion This study provides an overview of factors associated with women’s smoking in five European countries at the beginning of a time of rapid change in tobacco policy. We found that friends exert a strong influence on a woman’s decision to start smoking in all five countries, especially in younger women. This has been reported from previous studies based in Europe and in studies based in the United States, Iran, Thailand and Mexico [6-12,31-33]. We found that women in the Czech Republic and Sweden appeared to be more strongly influenced by friends and family smoking than in other countries. We found that being divorced or separated is strongly associated with smoking, which has been reported pre- viously [34]. The association between divorce or separa- tion and ever smoking appears to be strongest in Ireland and Italy, where rates of divorce and separation were lowest in our study sample. Our results also showed that in France, women who had never married were more likely to smoke than those who were mar- ried. Chaix and colleagues found similar results when they conducted a nationwide survey in France of 12 948 men and women [35]. Overall, we did not find a strong association between socioeconomic measures and smoking. This is in con- trast to other findings on education status, low