Smokers are 60 percent less likely to vote in elections than nonsmokers are, a possible indication of their increasing marginalization as a group, researchers suggest.
Researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver's Cancer Center say their study is the first to demonstrate an association between smoking and lower participation in the electoral process.
The result was not unexpected and somewhat intuitive, they say.
"We know from previous research that smokers are an increasingly marginalized population, involved in fewer organizations and activities and with less interpersonal trust than nonsmokers," says Karen Albright, first author of the study appearing in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
"But what our research suggests is that this marginalization may also extend beyond the interpersonal level to attitudes toward political systems and institutions," she says.
The study was based on an analysis of data collected in the Colorado Tobacco Attitudes and Behaviors Study, in which more than 11,6000 people were surveyed by telephone on an assortment of behavioral, social and demographic factors.
Included in the C-TABS poll were questions regarding smoking behavior and whether or not the survey respondents had gone to the ballot box in any recent elections.
Seventeen percent of the survey respondents said they were smokers, and after adjusting for all variables - including socioeconomic status strongly associated with tobacco use - the researchers determined that people who smoked daily were 60 percent less likely to choose to vote than their nonsmoking counterparts.
Exactly why smokers are less likely to vote is something the study isn't able to answer, the researchers acknowledge, although an earlier Swedish study uncovered a significant association between smoking and some level of political mistrust.
A trend toward more frequent enactment of higher tobacco taxes and laws banning smoking in restaurants, businesses and other indoor areas may have smokers regarding political institutions as increasingly oppressive, the Colorado researchers suggest.
In addition, the strong stigma that has become linked to smoking may be driving withdrawal from social processes and depression among smokers, and that may also decrease their desire or willingness to vote, the researchers propose.
An analysis of more recent C-TABS data should allow a more qualitative look at smokers' attitudes about the political system, they say.
"We're getting a clearer picture of the 'what' and soon I hope it will be time to talk to individual smokers in these populations to start exploring the 'why'," Albright says.
