March 22, 2012 | Cigarette smokers with fewer resources have a harder time kicking the habit than those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.

That’s according to a new study completed at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Public Health. The study used data from Arkansas smokers treated by some of the statewide services in Arkansas from 2005-2008. The study is featured in the March issue of the prestigious American Journal of Public Health, and can be found online.

Christine Sheffer, Ph.D., then an associate professor at UAMS College of Public Health, followed the smokers for six months after treatment.

“What’s interesting is that we found no disparities in the rate at which smokers quit at the end of treatment,” said Sheffer, now an associate medical professor at the City College of New York’s Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. “But socioeconomic disparities emerged three months after treatment and widened six months after treatment.”

The study shows that those with the most limited resources in terms of education and financial resources had the most difficult time avoiding relapse.

“We found that the poorest smokers were about 55 percent more likely than those at the other end of the spectrum to pick the habit back up three months after treatment,” Sheffer said. “By six months, the poorest smokers were two and a half times more likely to be smoking than the more affluent smokers.”

Sheffer theorizes that the higher rate of smoking in the poorest smokers could be attributed to higher stress levels. She suggests that treatment did not effectively assist the poorest smokers with types of stress they experience on a daily basis. Additionally, the poorest smokers were the least likely to be protected by smoke-free policies in the home. These are two areas that could potentially be the target of interventions.

“Smoking is still the greatest cause of preventable death and disease in the United States today,” she said. “And it’s a growing problem in developing countries.”

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute and the National Center for Research Resources. The smoking cessation program was funded by the Arkansas Department of Health.