Ozaukee County Reports Lowest Smoking Rate in State, Study Says

Ozaukee County has the lowest percentage of smokers in Wisconsin — with 13.3 percent of its population, according to a press release about a study by the Univeristy of Milwaukee.

The next lowest counties included: Lafayette County with 14.2 percent, Waukesha County with 14.3 percent and Dane County with 14.8 percent, according to the release. The study shows tobacco use from 2006 through 2008; the percentage of smokers statewide is 19.5 percent.

More from the press release:

The highest prevalence in Wisconsin was observed in Menominee County, with smoking being reported by 34 percent of adults, followed by Marquette County with 28.9 percent, Rock County with 27.1 percent and Lincoln County with 25.7 percent

“We commonly use the state’s overall prevalence of smoking as an indicator of how Wisconsin is doing in terms of tobacco prevention efforts,” said Karen Palmersheim, researcher at UWM’s Center for Urban Initiatives and Research and lead study author.

But during 2006, 2007 and 2008, the Wisconsin Division of Public Health Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, along with support from a number of state partners, expanded surveillance efforts in order to provide more reliable estimates of health conditions and risk behaviors at the county level.

“The considerable variability at the county level is important information,” Palmersheim said. “The state average suggests that one out of five Wisconsin adults is a current smoker. However, this study shows that in some counties – for example, several in the Northeast and Southeast parts of the state – the smoking prevalence is one out of four, and even one out of three.”

Data for the study came from the state’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, part of a national telephone-based survey of health conditions, health risk behaviors and the use of preventative services among non-institutionalized adults. Wisconsin has been participating in this surveillance system since its inception in 1984.