Lifestyle studies focused on alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking in rural Poland based on the example of patients attending the KRUS Farmers’ Rehabilitation Center in Jedlec

Abstract Aim To assess lifestyle behaviors in those Polish rural inhabitants attending the Rehabilitation Center in Jedlec by surveying the prevalence of smoking and alcohol consumption. Material and methods Subjects were 612 patients who were asked to complete an in-house designed questionnaire consisting of single- and multiple- choice questions regarding smoking and alcohol consumption. Replies were broken down according gender, age and education. Patients were divided into three age groups: under 49 years, 50–59 years and over 60 years. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS version 29.0 software. Results There were no statistically significant differences in smoking behaviour between genders (p=0.162), however the rates of women smoking (18.8%) was lower than that of men (23.4%). Statistically significant relationships were found between age and cigarette smoking (p=0.039). Younger people smoked cigarettes more often than older people. The prevalence of smoking was also found to increase with decreasing levels of education (p=0.001). The relationship between gender and alcohol consumption was found to be statistically significant (p=0.001), where men (51.1%) consumed alcohol more often than women (20.9%). Furthermore, the older the person, the more frequent was the alcohol consumption (p=0.002). There were however no statistically significant relationships between education and alcohol consumption (p=0.741). Conclusions Public health programs should continue active policies targeted against alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking. This problem affects many social groups and therefore cannot be downplayed.