Tobacco use: data introduction

The following tobacco use data pages focus mainly on estimates of smoking prevalence in Scotland among adults, pregnant women and young people. Table 1 summarises the dimensions / geographies of data  presented within these data pages.  Data for different geographies may be for different years depending on the period required to provide robust figures.

Data on other aspects of tobacco use in Scotland are available from a variety of sources but are not presented here. For information on what other data might be available, see the key data sources page.

Table 1: Data for Scotland presented on the tobacco use data pages 

	Data presented? (Y=yes; N=no)
Data dimensions/geographies	Adults	Maternal	Young people
By gender	Y	Y (female only)	Y
By age group	Y	Y	Y
By deprivation group	Y	Y	N
By NHS board area	Y	Y	N
By local authority area	Y	N	N
By community health partnership (CHP) area	Y	N	N
Time trend	Y	Y	Y
National target	Y	Y	N
Comparison with UK/GB	Y	N	Y
International comparison	Y	N	Y

Three reports published by ScotPHO are useful additional sources of information and data on smoking in Scotland:

• The report An atlas of tobacco smoking in Scotland (published in July 2007) presents estimates of adult smoking prevalence in Scotland at a number of administrative levels. It includes estimates for NHS boards, local authorities, CHPs and Scottish parliamentary constituencies and also for intermediate zones and postcode sectors. The estimates are perhaps most useful at the CHP level and below, where such estimates have not been available in this form before. Existing national surveys already provide smoking prevalence estimates for NHS boards and local authorities. The atlas also provides estimates of smoking-attributable deaths for NHS boards and CHPs.
• The report Tobacco smoking in Scotland: an epidemiology briefing (published in March 2008) presents summary data on smoking in Scotland. In addition, the report discusses why people take up smoking and continue to smoke, and what measures and interventions may help to reduce smoking in Scotland.
• The report Young adult smokers in Scotland (published in December 2008) provides an analysis of young adult (age 16-24) smokers. It considers the characteristics of young adult smokers - who they are, how/where they spend their time - and trends over time to help inform the development and targeting of practical responses to reduce smoking uptake in these transition years.

Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.