Epidemiologic aspects related to tobacco smoking as risk factors for female workers employed in retail trade

Tobacco smoking is widely spread among population and it results in unfavorable forecasts as regards population health; it is truly a vital social problem in Russia. We chose the following research object: female workers employed by a retail network which consisted of both grocery stores and catering outlets. Our research goal was to examine epidemiologic aspects related to tobacco smoking; the research was performed among workers via anonymous questioning. As a result, we detected that 60% of workers smoked. The share was even greater among women aged 40–50 as 77.8 % of them had this bad habit. We also detected that women in the examined sampling tended to start smoking at an earlier age than it had used to be; the trend is quite similar to those observed across Russia. We investigated how aware our respondents were of negative consequences tobacco smoking could lead to; the investigation revealed that non-smoking respondents were better aware that smoking was a hazardous and really bad habit than those who smoked. We examined peculiarities that we detected in prevalence of false ideas among women depending on their smoking behavior and age. Smoking women aged 30–40 had very little knowledge on the subject.

We assessed intensity and a type of smoking and revealed that only each fifth respondent smoked only occasionally while others smoked cigarettes in average or large numbers. 33.3 % of smoking women younger than 30, 14.3 % of women aged 40–50, and 10 % of women aged 30–40 had strong nicotine dependence. A desire to get some support in a complicated psycho-emotional situation was a prevailing motive for tobacco smoking among the respondents; it could be related both to their work activities and to weaker behavioral regulation. The research also revealed that non-smokers supported anti-smoking measures more actively.