Tobacco: sex, age and habits… what a daily smoker looks like in Occitanie ?

L’Occitanie est la région de France où les femmes fument le plus. Illustration MAXPPP – Alexis Sciard

Santé Publique France unveils a new study on smoking in France. Occitanie is one of the regions where people still smoke the most.

France is still a country where people smoke a lot, reveals a study by Public Health France unveiled this Tuesday, May 28 and which focuses on the smoking habits of adults in 2021. 2021, more than one in 4 adults smokes in France and the "prevalence of smoking among women" is on the rise, indicates Santé Publique France.

Regionally, Occitanie is targeted by the study as one of the three regions where people smoke the most, behind PACA and ahead of Pays-de-la-Loire. Surprise, it is in Occitanie that women are the heaviest French smokers.

Robot portrait of the smoker in Occitanie

In our region,26.6% smoke, the study carried out on a population aged 18 at 75 years old. However, more men smoke since smokers are estimated at 30.5% in Occitanie. In total, in the region, SPF estimates that there are approximately 1.2 million smokers.

As for the age of daily smokers in the region, it is the 31-45 year old group that smokes the most, up to reach a prevalence approaching 40%.It is the 61-75 year olds who smoke the least, they are a little more than 10%.

How to explain these numbers?

To explain that in Occitanie, as in Paca, the prevalence of smoking is higher than in the rest of France, SPF mentions "regional specificities", which could be cultural or even "linked to socio-economic factors -economic factors not taken into account in the analyses", such as sociability, living conditions or ease of access to cheaper tobacco.

Moreover, smokers from Occitanie are increasingly buying their cigarettes when crossing the border. "The share of cross-border purchasesduring the last purchase of cigarettes or tobacco was a little higher than the national average (20% compared to 15% in 2021), without however reaching the levels observed in Hauts-de-France (38%) or in Grand Est (55%)", note Public Health France.

The aim of this study is for SPF to guide prevention policies and monitor the achievement of reduction objectives smoking defined in regional tobacco control programs. Because one of the major conclusions of the study still recalls that &amp ;quot;Social inequalities in terms of smoking remain very marked in almost all regions, their reduction is therefore a major issue across the entire territory.

If in all regions more than one in two smokers express a desire to give up cigarettes, it is then up to the authorities to adapt the health response to support smoking cessation.

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