Could it be, there again, an invisible collateral damage of the health crisis? The number of smokers stopped falling last year in France, rebounding even among those with the lowest incomes, and this “In a context of social crisis”, according to figures released Wednesday May 26 by Public Health France (SPF).
In 2020, more than three adults aged 18-75 in ten declared to smoke at least occasionally (31.8%) and a quarter daily (25.5%), underlines the health agency before World No Tobacco Day, Monday 31 may. This marks a halt after several years of seeing the proportion of smokers drop from 34.5% to 30.4% between 2016 and 2019, and daily smokers drop from 29.4% to 24%.
SPF qualifies the figures for 2020 as stabilizing, because “The variations in the prevalence of smoking and daily smoking compared to 2019 are generally not significant”.
On the other hand, the public body notes well ” a raise “ smoking “Among the third of the population with the lowest incomes”, at 33.3% daily smokers against 29.8% in 2019. By contrast, in the third of the population with the highest incomes, only 18% declare themselves daily smokers.
Another disturbing signal: “In 2020, 29.9% of daily smokers had attempted to quit for at least one week in the past twelve months”, a proportion “Significantly lower compared to 2019 (33.4%)”.
These data come from the barometer carried out each year by SPF, a major survey on health issues conducted by telephone among 14,873 people between January and March 2020 and then between June and July of the same year.
Manage stress and overcome daily difficulties
The health crisis linked to Covid-19 and its economic and social restrictions “Do not seem to have had an unfavorable impact”, since it is at the beginning of 2020, between January and March, that the ” rise “ is observed, followed by “Stabilization” after the first confinement.
Among those surveyed from January to mid-March 2020, 32.7% said they smoked, but this proportion fell to 30.5% among those surveyed in June and July 2020, returning to the level of 2019 (30.4%). %).
This stabilization may have a link with the health crisis, argues Loïc Josseran, president of the Alliance against tobacco and professor of public health at the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin, because “With each hard phenomenon for the population, we observe an upsurge in addictive behavior”.
With the “Successive declines” in recent years, “We had done the easy part”, from now on “It will be complicated to continue” to decrease, because we will have to touch “The most fragile”, less sensitive to prevention messages, he explained.
SPF does not decide on the reasons for this development, but observes that it “Is part of a context of social crisis in France which started at the end of 2018, with the movement of” yellow vests “”, who “Strongly concerned populations of lower socio-economic level”.
“However, among the less privileged populations, cigarettes could be used to manage stress or to overcome daily difficulties, despite the increasing cost of this product”, advances the agency, citing a French study of 2009 which analyzed why modest smokers are paradoxically less sensitive to policies of increase in tobacco prices.
One in eight tobacco-related deaths
Since 2017, the government has significantly increased tobacco taxes to reduce the price of the package to 8 euros in March 2018, then to around 10 euros at the beginning of 2020, with the stated aim of reducing consumption.
The level of smoking “Remains high in France compared to Anglo-Saxon countries”, like the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, which had only 14% of smokers in 2019, with however there also strong disparities according to the level of income and diploma, observes Public Health France.
Seventy-five thousand deaths per year in metropolitan France are attributable to tobacco, according to a study published in 2019, or more than one in eight deaths. To achieve the goal of health authorities of a “First tobacco-free generation by 2030”, Public Health France invites “Reinstall a downward trend” and to “Further strengthen the fight among the populations most vulnerable to smoking”, to take into account social inequalities “Very marked”.