Social Influences on Smoking in American Workers: The Role of the Presence of Smokers in the Workplace and in the Home

Abstract

Purpose.

To examine the relationship between the presence of smokers in the workplace and smokers in the home and current smoking status among employed men and women.

Design.

Analysis of data from the second wave of the nationally representative Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (2004–2006).

Subjects.

Sample of 627 currently employed men and women, aged 34 to 82 (M = 51), who had been regular cigarette smokers at some time.

Measures.

Survey items indexing presence of smokers in the respondents' immediate work area and home and their current smoking status.

Analysis.

Multiple logistic regression analyses, controlling for age, gender, education, race, and job type.

Results.

Examined together, smokers in the workplace (OR = 2.83) and smokers in the home (OR = 6.09) were uniquely associated with current smoking status. Moreover, smokers in the home reduced the association between smokers in the workplace and current smoking. The presence of smokers in the workplace was associated with a more than fourfold increase in current smoking among respondents with no smokers in the home, but was unrelated to current smoking among respondents with smokers in the home.

Conclusions.

Failure to consider the presence of smokers in the home significantly limits the potential impact of workplace smoking interventions.