Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
College/Unit
School of Public Health
Department/Program/Center
Epidemiology
Abstract
Background
Stimulated by rapid modernization and industrialization, there is massive rural–urban migration in China. The migrants are highly susceptible to smoking and mental health problems. This study examined the association between both perceived work stress and perceived life stress with smoking behavior among this group during the period of migration.
Methods
Participants (n = 1,595) were identified through stratified, multi-stage, systematic sampling. Smoking status separated non-smokers from daily and occasional smokers, and migration history, work stress, and life stress were also measured. Analyses were conducted using the Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression. Two models were utilized. The first was the full model that comprised sociodemographic and migration-related characteristics, as well as the two stress variables. In addressing potential overlap between life and work stress, the second model eliminated one of the two stress variables as appropriate.
Results
Overall smoking prevalence was 64.9% (95% CI: 62.4-67.2%). In the regression analysis, under the full model, migrants with high perceived life stress showed a 45% excess likelihood to be current smokers relative to low-stress counterparts (OR: 1.45; 95% CI: 1.05 – 2.06). Applying the second model, which excluded the life stress variable, migrants with high perceived work stress had a 75% excess likelihood to be current smokers relative to opposites (OR: 1.75; 95% CI: 1.26–2.45).
Conclusions
Rural–urban migrant workers manifested a high prevalence of both life stress and work stress. While both forms of stress showed associations with current smoking, life stress appeared to outweigh the impact of work stress. Our findings could inform the design of tobacco control programs that would target Chinese rural–urban migrant workers as a special population.
Digital Commons Citation
Cui, Xiaobo; Rockett, Ian RH; Yang, Tingzhong; and Cao, Ruoxiang, "Work stress, life stress, and smoking among rural–urban migrant workers in China" (2013). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 2651.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/2651
Source Citation
Cui, X., Rockett, I.R., Yang, T. et al. Work stress, life stress, and smoking among rural–urban migrant workers in China. BMC Public Health 12, 979 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-979
Comments
© 2012 Cui et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.