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Gender, risk perceptions, and smoking behavior

Lundborg, Petter LU and Andersson, Henrik (2008) In Journal of Health Economics 27(5). p.1299-1311
Abstract
The underlying reasons for gender differences in smoking behavior, and thus for the recent trends, are not well understood. Using a sample of 8592 Swedish adolescents aged 15-18, this paper contributes to the literature by exploring gender differences in smoking risk perceptions and in the responses to the latter. The results show significant gender differences in the perception of smoking mortality risk and in the perception of the addictiveness of smoking. Girls perceive the mortality risk of smoking as significantly greater than boys do, but they also perceive the addictiveness of cigarettes as less. These results persist after controlling for a wide range of background characteristics, including smoking risk information sources.... (More)
The underlying reasons for gender differences in smoking behavior, and thus for the recent trends, are not well understood. Using a sample of 8592 Swedish adolescents aged 15-18, this paper contributes to the literature by exploring gender differences in smoking risk perceptions and in the responses to the latter. The results show significant gender differences in the perception of smoking mortality risk and in the perception of the addictiveness of smoking. Girls perceive the mortality risk of smoking as significantly greater than boys do, but they also perceive the addictiveness of cigarettes as less. These results persist after controlling for a wide range of background characteristics, including smoking risk information sources. Moreover, the findings Suggest that while smoking information from sources such as teachers, pals, and own search, affect smoking mortality perceptions in a significant and positive manner among boys, no Such effects are obtained among girls. Finally, our results show that both boys and girls take both the addictiveness and mortality risk of smoking into account when making their smoking decision. Moreover, the magnitude of the response is similar among boys and girls. This is in contrast to the general belief that females dislike risks to a greater extent than males. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
risk perceptions, gender, smoking, information
in
Journal of Health Economics
volume
27
issue
5
pages
1299 - 1311
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000259689800014
  • scopus:50349091968
ISSN
1879-1646
DOI
10.1016/j.jhealeco.2008.03.003
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Division of Health Economics and Forensic Medicine (Closed 2012) (013040050), Centre for Economic Demography (012019200)
id
b0de23fc-eb11-4074-8c4c-6c74813effe7 (old id 1285722)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:44:22
date last changed
2022-04-28 19:17:07
@article{b0de23fc-eb11-4074-8c4c-6c74813effe7,
  abstract     = {{The underlying reasons for gender differences in smoking behavior, and thus for the recent trends, are not well understood. Using a sample of 8592 Swedish adolescents aged 15-18, this paper contributes to the literature by exploring gender differences in smoking risk perceptions and in the responses to the latter. The results show significant gender differences in the perception of smoking mortality risk and in the perception of the addictiveness of smoking. Girls perceive the mortality risk of smoking as significantly greater than boys do, but they also perceive the addictiveness of cigarettes as less. These results persist after controlling for a wide range of background characteristics, including smoking risk information sources. Moreover, the findings Suggest that while smoking information from sources such as teachers, pals, and own search, affect smoking mortality perceptions in a significant and positive manner among boys, no Such effects are obtained among girls. Finally, our results show that both boys and girls take both the addictiveness and mortality risk of smoking into account when making their smoking decision. Moreover, the magnitude of the response is similar among boys and girls. This is in contrast to the general belief that females dislike risks to a greater extent than males. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}},
  author       = {{Lundborg, Petter and Andersson, Henrik}},
  issn         = {{1879-1646}},
  keywords     = {{risk perceptions; gender; smoking; information}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{1299--1311}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Health Economics}},
  title        = {{Gender, risk perceptions, and smoking behavior}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2008.03.003}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jhealeco.2008.03.003}},
  volume       = {{27}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}