Socioeconomic Status and Women's Smoking Behavior: A Literature Review

Objectives: This paper presents a literature review that examines the relationship between socioeconomic status and women’s smoking behavior in the United States. Methods: A literature search was conducted among national and international peer-reviewed literature in the following databases: Academic Search Premier, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, Education Resource Information Center (ERIC), MEDLINE, and PsycARTICLES. A manual search was performed to obtain relevant articles within selected journals. Results: Of the 9 reviewed studies, 5 indicated that a low education level is a causal factor which has a significant relationship with smoking behavior among women. 6 of the reviewed studies provided evidence that household income level plays an important role in women’s cigarette smoking. Finally, 2 of the reviewed studies indicated that women’s smoking behavior is influenced by their marital status. Conclusion: The findings from this literature review indicate that future smoking prevention efforts targeting women might benefit from incorporating education, household income, and marital situation into multi-component programs that focus on the differences in socioeconomic status.