The influence of men’s military service on smoking across the life course

Andrew S. London, Pamela Herd, Richard A. Miech, Janet M. Wilmoth

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

The military is described as a social context that contributes to the (re-)initiation or intensification of cigarette smoking. We draw on data from the 1985-2014 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) to conduct complementary sub-studies of the influence of military service on men’s smoking outcomes across the life course. Descriptive findings from an age–period–cohort analysis of NSDUH data document higher probabilities of current smoking and heavy smoking among veteran men across a broad range of cohorts and at all observed ages. Findings from sibling fixed-effects Poisson models estimated on the WLS data document longer durations of smoking among men who served in the military and no evidence that selection explains the observed relationship. Together, these results provide novel and potentially generalizable evidence that participation in the military in early adulthood exerts a causal influence on smoking across the life course.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)562-586
Number of pages25
JournalJournal of Drug Issues
Volume47
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2017

Keywords

  • Life course
  • Military service
  • Sibling fixed effects
  • Smoking
  • Veterans

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The influence of men’s military service on smoking across the life course'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this