Summary

In France, tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death and the leading risk factor for cancer. However, following an unprecedented decline in smoking rates between 2016 and 2019, prevalence has stabilized, with regional variations.

Despite these regional disparities, the characteristics of smokers remain largely similar:

• the prevalence of daily smoking is much higher among people with no high school diploma or a diploma below the high school level, among the unemployed compared to those who are employed, and among people with low incomes; These differences in prevalence lead to significant disparities in mortality and morbidity and highlight the persistence of health inequalities linked to tobacco use;

• the desire to quit smoking is associated with being male, being over 35 years of age, reporting financial hardship, experiencing a major depressive episode within the past year, and not reporting significant monthly binge drinking (API)*; Attempts to quit within the past year are associated with being male, being under 35 years of age, having a high school diploma or higher, and not reporting daily alcohol consumption. The desire to quit and attempts to quit are significantly less frequent among women, though the differences remain modest.

These characteristics show that it is important to continue adapting prevention measures, not only to encourage socio-economically vulnerable smokers to attempt to quit, but also to better help them turn these attempts into successful cessation.

This Centre-Val de Loire epidemiological report, intended for regional stakeholders, aims to provide key regional indicators for the planning and evaluation of local tobacco prevention policies, based on data from the 2021 Santé publique France Barometer. An article addressing inter-regional comparisons will be published in the coming months.

Daily smoking in 2021:

• One-fifth of 18- to 75-year-olds in the Centre-Val de Loire region reported smoking daily. The prevalence of smoking had decreased significantly compared to 2017. This significant downward trend in daily smoking was observed between 2017 and 2021 among men (from 30% to 21%), the youngest age group (from 39% to 23% among 18–30-year-olds; from 36% to 24% among those aged 31–45) and among high-income individuals (from 22% to 10%) [5]. Since 2016, the prevalence gap between men and women has tended to narrow, with the prevalence of daily smoking among men falling below that of women in 2021 (20.6% vs. 22.7% among women).

• The desire to quit smoking was reported by 57% of daily smokers, and 25% had attempted to quit within the past year.

Vaping in the Centre-Val de Loire region in 2021:

• ​​​​​​​39% of 18- to 75-year-olds reported having tried vaping, primarily those aged 18 to 30 (67%). Only 6% reported vaping daily.

* at least 6 drinks on a single occasion