Health Directorate: Icelandic Women Smoke And Drink Less, Vape As Often As Men

A new study from the Directorate of Health shows that Icelandic women typically smoke less, drink to drunkenness less, and use mouth tobacco less often than Icelandic men. At the same time, young Icelandic women vape just as often as young Icelandic men.

The study covered Icelandic men and women of all ages, and there were some differences in consumption by age. For example, slightly fewer women than men aged 18 to 55 reported they smoked cigarettes daily, at around 9% versus around 8%. While 11% of women aged 55 and older reported smoking daily, only 7% of men in the same age group did.

The use of mouth tobacco showed more striking differences. 20% of Icelandic men aged 18 to 34 reported using it daily or less, while only 7% of women reported doing the same. In those aged 35 to 54, 5% of men and 0% of women in this age bracket reported using mouth tobacco. No one of either of these genders aged 55 or older reported using it at all.

In terms of drinking to drunkenness, 54% of men aged 18 to 34 reported doing so once a month or more, while only 29% of women of the same age reported doing the same. This decreased significantly for these two genders in the 35-to-54 age bracket, at 38% and 15% respectively, and fell sharply at age 55 and greater, at 35% and 13%.

The one area in which there was an almost exactly even keel was when it comes to vaping—12% of both men and women aged 18 to 34 reported vaping daily or less often. In the 35-to-54 age bracket, more men (11%) than women (6%) reported doing the same, but in ages 55 or older, slightly more women (5%) than men (2%) said they vaped daily or less often.