The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Ohio's cigarette smoking rate one of the highest in nation

More than 1 in 4 Ohioans light up, according to new study.

More than one-quarter of Ohioans smoke cigarettes, making the state’s smoking rate one of the highest in the nation, according to a new study.

Trent Penny/AP More than one-quarter of Ohioans smoke cigarettes, making the state’s smoking rate one of the highest in the nation, according to a new study.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Air Force intelligence center gets new commander May 30
3:03 p.m.
Beach Waterpark sued for failure to deliver
1:56 p.m.
Dayton gets boost from committee for UAV testing
5/24/12
Police headlines: Two accused of child endangering
5/24/12
Ad calls Brown career politician
5/24/12
> More headlines

By Cornelius Frolik, Staff Writer Updated 12:02 AM Saturday, November 19, 2011

More than one-quarter of Ohioans smoke cigarettes, making the state’s smoking rate one of the highest in the nation, according to a new study.

About 26 percent of Ohioans smoked cigarettes in 2011, matching the smoking rates of Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas, according to a study released Thursday by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

Only Kentucky, where 29 percent of residents light up, had a higher rate, according to the survey of 177,600 Americans. Ohio is the only state with a comprehensive smoking ban that has a smoking rate above 25 percent, the study said.

But officials with the Ohio Department of Health said the report’s findings were not exactly consistent with those from their own survey, which found that the percentage of Ohioans who smoke was 22.5 percent in 2010. Nonetheless, they said smoking remains a huge health concern in the state and the portion of the population who smoke is not decreasing.

“Ohio still is a tobacco-growing state and we also know that tobacco usage is largely tied, in many instances, to income and educational levels,” said Mary-jean Siehl, chief of Ohio’s tobacco youth prevention and cessation program.

This year, Ohio was one of 11 states in the country with a smoking rate above 25 percent, and the percentage of residents who smoke remained unchanged from 2010, the study found.

In contrast, many states across the country saw fewer of their residents light up this year, and about 18 had smoking rates below 20 percent, an improvement from only eight in 2010, according to the study.

Zach Bikus, executive assistant with Gallup, said some of the contributing factors of Ohio’s high portion of smokers is that the state ranks 21st in diagnoses of clinical depression, 12th in daily stress, 10th in obesity, 45th in exercise, and 45th in trusting work environments. Health officials said smoking is often linked to education and income, and it is common in Ohio’s large Appalachian region.

Education and awareness campaigns about the risks involved with smoking discourages people from picking up the habit, but health officials said Ohio’s smoking ban also plays a role in curbing the activity.

A study of the number of emergency room visits before and after the ban was enacted found that heart attack-complaint rates declined by about 26 percent, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

But Greene County Health Commissioner Mark McDonnell said unfortunately preliminary estimates indicate the smoking rate of residents in the area and the state will rise this year because of a loss of state funding support for some anti-tobacco programs.

“We were making some real progress in lowering the smoking rates in Ohio, but it appears they are starting to creep back up again, which is a shame, because it will cost everybody more money,” McDonnell said.