Gender aspects of tobacco epidemic in Russia

The authors analyze the dynamics of smoking prevalence and tobacco associated mortality in the context of strengthening the state policy of tobacco control in Russia that started in the second half of the 2000s. During this period, the proportion of smokers steadily declined, almost exclusively due to male smoking. The authors' estimates of the mortality from diseases caused by smoking, despite the positive dynamics, indicate the magnitude of the problem: in 2017 about 235 thousand people died from diseases caused by smoking, among them 212 thousand men and 23 thousand women. Like other countries at the mature stages of the smoking epidemic, Russia is experiencing a convergence in the smoking prevalence among men and women. While men quit smoking, women still support smoking in various educational and income groups. While Russian men have already passed peak smoking prevalence rates and moved on to the next stage of the epidemic, with high death rates from diseases caused by smoking (over 30% of all deaths between 35-69 years old in 2017), the peak of tobacco deaths among women (currently 7%) is still ahead. Russian women are slowly passing the stage of epidemic with high smoking prevalence. We associate this phenomenon with the incompleteness of the gender transition (the so-called "half-emancipation"), preserving motives to support bad habits in women.