LIFETIME SMOKING-HABITS AMONG NORWEGIAN MEN AND WOMEN BORN BETWEEN 1890 AND 1974

Background. The aims of the present study were to provide lifetime smoking data for epidemiological studies of tobacco-induced cancer in Norway, and to sort out the influence of age, gender, and period on the population's smoking habits in this century. Methods. We used annual surveys of smoking habits from 1954 to 1992, and individual lifetime smoking histories collected in 1965 from a population sample born 1893-1927. The population was divided into 5-year sex-and-birth cohorts born between 1890 and 1974, and smoking habits were described as the proportion of current smokers in 5-year age groups between 15 and 74 years old. We also estimated the average tobacco consumption per smoker by calendar year after 1930.