Abstract

        What percentage of Canadian women and men smoke, and what percentage relieve stress by smoking? How do these rates vary by high-risk behaviours, quality of life and work, and use of support services?

        How is smoking related to age, sleep, formal and non-formal education and region? These and many other questions may be answered by the results reported in this study - charts, tables and analyses.

        Overall, 28% of women and 33% of men smoke. The rate for teen girls aged 15 to 19 is 30%, and this jumps to 38% of women aged 20 to 24, then falls steadily to 9% for those 80 plus. The rate for teen boys is 27%, and this jumps to 44% for men aged 20 to 24, then falls to 9% for men aged 80 plus.

        Our assumption in this study is that both smoking, and the relief of stress by smoking more, are negatively related to education and other public goods, and to the quality of life and work, and positively related to public "bads", and to the use of public and private support services.

        Evidence in the tables, charts and the results of analysis tend to support these assumptions. For example, only 20% of the non-users of marijuana are smokers compared with 37% of those who had tried marijuana once in their life and 47% of those who had used marijuana more than once.

        Also, only 16% of the weekly worshippers are smokers, compared with 25% of the monthly worshippers, 31% to 32% of the less frequent worshippers in the preceding year, and 39% of the non-worshippers.

        Those affiliated with the more conservative faith traditions are less prone to smoke: 19%, non-Christian faiths; 26%, conservative Christian; 29% liberal Protestant; and 31%, Roman Catholic.

        The smoker rate is 25% among those very satisfied with life in general; 30%, satisfied; 38%, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied; and 45%, dissatisfied. The percentage coping often with stress by smoking more varies in a similar way, from 5%, very satisfied, to 22%, dissatisfied.

        The assumed relationships are supported by many of the analytical results, and when the association is opposite to expected with education, it tends to be as expected for frequency of worship, leading us to conclude that non-formal education compensates for any negative effect of formal.

        For smokers and non-smokers associations with education are opposite to those expected regarding lifetime use of marijuana, coping with stress by drinking alcohol, considering time pressures a major source of stress, experiencing no stress, and feeling good and at peace.