More middle-class and wealthier women are smoking than a decade ago, bucking the national trend.
While smoking rates have fallen among working-class women, research shows that smoking rates have risen among younger, more privileged women.
Experts suggest the increases could be due to strains on female-led professions – such as teaching and nursing – being less affected by price rises.
Researchers from University College London studied data from almost 200,000 adults in England who took part in the Smoking Toolkit Study.
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Experts believe that the increase in smoking rates may be due to women working in more stressful jobs – such as nursing and teaching – but also to less financial pressure being felt thanks to other groups.
Approximately 44,052 women were of childbearing age (18 to 45 years), and are considered among the women most at risk from the effects of smoking.
The prevalence of smoking among working-class women and the unemployed has fallen from 28.7 percent to 22.4 percent in the past decade.
But among women whose highest household earners had professional, managerial or administrative jobs, the share rose from 11.7 percent to 14.9 percent.
The same was not true for men; figures have remained stable over the past decade, according to the study, which was funded by Cancer Research UK and published in BMC Medicine.
Meanwhile, vaping among all women aged 18 to 45 has more than tripled in ten years, from 5.1 percent to 19.7 percent between 2013 and 2023.
It comes days after MPs backed Rishi Sunak’s plan to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes, despite opposition from some Tory MPs.
The legislation will also introduce measures designed to ‘crack down on youth vaping’ and strengthen enforcement of vaping restrictions.
Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson, from UCL’s Institute of Epidemiology and Healthcare, said the increase among this group was ‘worrying’.
She said: ‘These findings suggest that this group may benefit from targeted intervention to prevent smoking initiation or relapse.
‘Reducing smoking is particularly important among women in this age group, as smoking reduces fertility and increases the risk of complications during pregnancy, miscarriage and poor health of the child.’
The share of female smokers aged 18 to 45 who say they smoke mainly or exclusively hand-rolled cigarettes has increased from 40.5 percent to 61.4 percent in the past ten years.
This may also have been driven by the cost of living crisis, the researchers said, as gender inequality was exacerbated during the pandemic.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2023 health report shows that 12.7 percent of Britons over the age of 15 smoke cigarettes every day, far more than in the US and New Zealand, the latter of which recently introduced a similar phased smoking ban
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The latest ONS figures show that the number of people smoking cigarettes in Britain has fallen to a record low. A total of 6.4 million adults in Britain – or 12.9 percent – smoked in 2022. This is the lowest figure since records began in 2011 and down from 13.3 percent in 2021 was reported.
They wrote: ‘These financial pressures likely contributed to the reduction in smoking among women from less privileged social classes and encouraged those who did not quit to switch to hand-rolled products as a way to afford to continue smoking .’
Dr. Sharon Cox, senior author, said: ‘The reasons for the possible increase in smoking among more privileged women under 45 are unclear.
‘However, it may be that the financial pressure of smoking had less influence on this group.
‘Some may also have switched to cheaper hand-rolled cigarettes – a trend that was most pronounced among less privileged female smokers, 68 percent of whom were rolling their own cigarettes by 2023.’
The team said further research is needed into whether the increase in smoking among more privileged women is linked to those who have never smoked, or whether former smokers are picking up the habit again.
It comes as a new report from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) calls for tougher restrictions on young people’s vaping.
The research shows that the promotion of e-cigarettes on social media should be restricted, that e-cigarettes should be made less affordable for young people and that vaping in plain packaging would be less attractive.
One of the most recognizable faces in the film – Bridget Jones – fits into this category as a thirty-something journalist, often seen with a cigarette in hand.
Helen Fielding’s heroine is said to have inspired female health for a generation and makes a sensational return in Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, 23 years after the original.