Socioeconomic inequalities in the impact of tobacco control policies on adolescent smoking. A multilevel study in 29 European countries.

Data were used from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study conducted in 2005/2006 comprising 50,338 adolescents aged 15 years from 29 European countries. Multilevel logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the association of weekly smoking with components of the Tobacco Control Scale (TCS), and to assess whether this association varied according to family affluence (FAS). Analyses were carried out per gender and adjusted for national wealth and general smoking rate. Results indicated that most tobacco control policies are not clearly related to adolescent weekly smoking across European countries. Only tobacco price seemed to be adequate decreasing smoking prevalence among boys, irrespective of their socioeconomic status. Highlights: • We examine social inequalities in associations of tobacco control with youth smoking • Multilevel analyses were applied separately for boys and girls • Tobacco price was associated with lower male smoking, independent of family affluence • Female smoking was not associated with tobacco control policie