[Smoking, work status, and gender: analysis of the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey, 2008].

This study investigated whether men's and women's work status is associated with current smoking, after adjusting for schooling, income, and health, besides discussing hypotheses for such associations. The sample included individuals 15 to 64 years of age living in metropolitan areas, currently in the work force, and interviewed in the Brazilian National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) in 2008. Prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were obtained by Poisson regression. After adjusting, smoking prevalence was statistically higher in individuals with informal jobs (men, PR = 1.31, 95%CI: 1.24-1.38; women, PR = 1.22, 95%CI: 1.12-1.31) or who were unemployed (men, PR = 1.31, 95%CI: 1.18-1.44; women, PR = 1.16, 95%CI: 1.03-1.32). Our results confirm that work status is an independent dimension of social inequalities in smoking. The social gradient was steeper in men, but the association between work status and smoking was present in both genders.