Health literacy, cognitive ability and smoking: A cross-sectional analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

TY - JOUR

T1 - Health literacy, cognitive ability and smoking

T2 - A cross-sectional analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

AU - Fawns-Ritchie, Chloe

AU - Starr, John M.

AU - Deary, Ian J.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Author(s) (or their employer(s)). This work was supported by the University of Edinburgh Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, part of the cross council Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Initiative, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and Medical Research Council (MRC) (grant number MR/ K026992/1).

PY - 2018/10/27

Y1 - 2018/10/27

N2 - Objectives: We used logistic regression to investigate whether health literacy and cognitive ability independently predicted whether participants have ever smoked and, in ever smokers, whether participants still smoked nowadays. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting This study used data from Wave 2 (2004-05) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which is a cohort study of adults who live in England and who, at baseline, were aged 50 years and older. Participants 8734 (mean age=65.31 years, SD=10.18) English Longitudinal Study of Ageing participants who answered questions about their current and past smoking status, and completed cognitive ability and health literacy tests at Wave 2. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome measures were whether participants reported ever smoking at Wave 2 and whether ever smokers reported still smoking at Wave 2. Results: In models adjusting for age, sex, age left full-time education and occupational social class, limited health literacy (OR=1.096, 95% CI 0.988 to 1.216) and higher general cognitive ability (OR=1.000, 95% CI 0.945 to 1.057) were not associated with reporting ever smoking. In ever smokers, limited compared with adequate health literacy was associated with greater odds of being a current smoker (OR=1.194, 95% CI 1.034 to 1.378) and a 1 SD higher general cognitive ability score was associated with reduced odds of being a current smoker (OR=0.878, 95% CI 0.810 to 0.951), when adjusting for age, sex, age left full-time education and occupational social class. Conclusions: When adjusting for education and occupation variables, this study found that health literacy and cognitive ability were independently associated with whether ever smokers continued to smoke nowadays, but not with whether participants had ever smoked.

AB - Objectives: We used logistic regression to investigate whether health literacy and cognitive ability independently predicted whether participants have ever smoked and, in ever smokers, whether participants still smoked nowadays. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting This study used data from Wave 2 (2004-05) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which is a cohort study of adults who live in England and who, at baseline, were aged 50 years and older. Participants 8734 (mean age=65.31 years, SD=10.18) English Longitudinal Study of Ageing participants who answered questions about their current and past smoking status, and completed cognitive ability and health literacy tests at Wave 2. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome measures were whether participants reported ever smoking at Wave 2 and whether ever smokers reported still smoking at Wave 2. Results: In models adjusting for age, sex, age left full-time education and occupational social class, limited health literacy (OR=1.096, 95% CI 0.988 to 1.216) and higher general cognitive ability (OR=1.000, 95% CI 0.945 to 1.057) were not associated with reporting ever smoking. In ever smokers, limited compared with adequate health literacy was associated with greater odds of being a current smoker (OR=1.194, 95% CI 1.034 to 1.378) and a 1 SD higher general cognitive ability score was associated with reduced odds of being a current smoker (OR=0.878, 95% CI 0.810 to 0.951), when adjusting for age, sex, age left full-time education and occupational social class. Conclusions: When adjusting for education and occupation variables, this study found that health literacy and cognitive ability were independently associated with whether ever smokers continued to smoke nowadays, but not with whether participants had ever smoked.

KW - epidemiology

KW - public health

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85055619271

U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023929

DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-023929

M3 - Article

C2 - 30368451

AN - SCOPUS:85055619271

SN - 2044-6055

VL - 8

JO - BMJ Open

JF - BMJ Open

IS - 10

M1 - e023929

ER -