Mortality patterns reflect smoking behaviour in the past

Mortality patterns today are indicative of smoking behaviour two to three decades ago. The tobacco epidemic is at different stages in different EU countries: Western European men began smoking early in the 20th century, while women took up smoking in the second half of the 20th century. Smoking prevalence among men in Western Europe started to decline from the 1950s onwards and among women from the mid-1970s onwards. This is reflected in today's mortality patterns that are declining for both sexes. In Central and Eastern Europe people's awareness levels of the harmful effects of smoking were low until near the end of the 1980s. The prevalence of smoking among men in Central and Eastern European countries is either peaking or starting to decline now, while among women it is still increasing (ASPECT, 2004).

Mortality among women is still rising

The overall trends in mortality for smoking-attributable deaths during the second half of 20th century are illustrated for the EU-25 in Trends in smoking attributable mortality. The overall proportion of smoking attributable deaths among women is still rising, while male mortality already reached its peak in the 1980s.