Health Behaviors and the Role of Job Conditions: Smoking Cessation and Work Transitions through Young Adulthood and Midlife

Margaret M. Weden, Johns Hopkins University

Work conditions offer one mechanism linking structural inequality to poor health and mortality. Both psychosocial and cultural factors are important components of the differences in work environments. Health behaviors, such as smoking, can reflect the strain and/or the social norms associated with these work environments. This paper explores the relationship between job conditions and smoking cessation. Trajectories of cessation and workplace transitions are estimated for men and women among the three most prevalent US ethnic groups, using event history models and data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979-1998. This paper extends existing cross-sectional and urban-based literature on the relationship between work and health behaviors, with a unique approach that addresses the health implications of the work environment over the life course.