Association of low employment quality with cigarette smoking, smoking initiation, and smoking cessation: A 16-year longitudinal study in South Korea

This study explored the association between multidimensional aspects of employment quality and smoking habits. This study included the wage workers in the Korean Labour and Income Panel Study, 2005–2021 (n = 16,188; observations = 92,954). The employment quality was constructed using a multidimensional approach encompassing three dimensions: employment insecurity, income inadequacy, and a lack of rights and protection. The outcome was current smoking in the same year as exposure to employment quality, as well as the incidence of smoking initiation and cessation in the subsequent year. A generalized estimating equation was used for repeated measures analysis to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Compared with those with the highest employment quality, the odds of smoking cessation were lower among those with the low employment quality (OR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.68–0.95) and those with the lowest employment quality (OR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.61–0.95). While a comparable relationship was found among males, the correlation in the female sample was unclear. Concurrent smoking status and smoking initiation exhibited no clear associations with overall employment quality in both male and female samples. For individual employment quality indicators, daily employment showed a negative association with the odds of smoking cessation. Therefore, this study suggests that policy interventions aimed at enhancing the employment quality of workers are warranted to reduce smoking rates.