Search

Since 1965, the number of smokers in the United States has declined by 40 percent. Although smoking is decreasing, and many individuals are quitting, the high rate of relapse is a major obstacle to lowering these statistics further. Also, the number of individuals who typically remain abstinent for one year after quitting is estimated to be between 20 and 40 percent. No formal studies have been conducted to assess the efficacy of smoking cessation programs in this country. This study investigated methods used to quit, noted differences between individuals who used a program (rather than quitting on their own), and looked for characteristics that distinguished successful quitters from relapsers. Data compiled by the 1986 Adult Use of Tobacco Survey were used in the investigation. Succeeders were defined as smokers who had quit within the last 10 years and who had once smoked for at least one year. Relapsers were defined as current smokers who tried to quit within the last 10 years, but were smoking at the time of the survey. Cessation methods included assisted and unassisted approaches. Few differences in characteristics of the succeeders and relapsers were noted, although relapsers tended to be younger and succeeders tended to be more educated. Those who were most likely to use a formal cessation program included women, the middle-aged, heavier smokers, individuals who had tried to quit before, and those with more education. Out of the individuals who had attempted to quit in the last 10 years, 47.5 percent were successful on their own, and 23.6 percent of those who used a program were able to stop. Of the successful quitters, 90 percent had stopped on their own, and 80 percent of the relapsers tried to stop on their own. It was concluded that smoking cessation programs, in general, have little impact, but may be helpful to a specific and small population of smokers. This is significant because among this population is the heavier smoker, who is at highest risk for smoking-related illness and death. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

The validity of self-reports of cigarette consumption was assessed. Self-reported cigarette consumption figures were compared with figures on cigarette sales. Self-reported figures were an average of 72 percent of the sales estimate. This understatement did not vary from year to year, indicating that underreporting of consumption is not on the rise. It was conclude that self-reported consumption figures are a reliable way of estimating changes in cigarette consumption.

A National Health Interview Survey from 1974 to 1985 projects that 22 percent (40 million) of adult Americans will be smokers by the year 2000. Major inequalities are projected in the smoking patterns among people with different educational backgrounds. Fewer than 10 percent of those with a college degree will smoke, while at least 30 percent of those whose education does not extend beyond high school smoke. Along the lines of gender and race, it is projected that 21 percent of whites, 25 percent of balcks, 23 percent of women, and 20 percent of men will be smokers by the year 2000. Public health efforts to encourage people to stop smoking helped cut the numbers of smokers between 1974 and 1985. However, since that time, nearly 1 million Americans started smoking cigarettes each year. Smoking prevention campaigns should focus on young people, especially those less educated, in order to reduce the numbers of cigarette smokers., Data from National Health Interview Surveys from 1974 through 1985 are used to project cigarette smoking prevalence to the year 2000. Smoking prevalence in the United States has declined at a linear rate since 1974. If this trend continues, in the year 2000, 22% of the adult population (40 million Americans) will be smokers. By the year 2000, the major inequalities in prevalence will occur among educational categories. At least 305 of those who have not proceeded beyond a high school education will be smokers, whereas less than 10% of college graduates will smoke. Among the other sociodemographic subgroups, smoking prevalence is expected to decrease by the year 2000 to 20% among men, to 23% among women, to 25% among blacks, and to 21% among whites. Between 1974 and 1985, approximately 1.3 million persons per year became former smokers, indicating considerable success in public health efforts to encourage people to stop smoking. However, in the early 1980s, approximately 1 million new young persons per year were recruited to the ranks of regular smokers. This is equivalent to about 3000 new smokers each day. Public health efforts need to focus more on preventing young people from starting to smoke, and such prevention efforts should particularly target less educated socioeconomic groups.

Education, rather than gender, is the primary sociodemographic factor determining the prevalence of smoking, according to an analysis of smoking patterns from 1974 to 1985. While the numbers of people smoking decreased across groups from all educational levels, the less educated stopped smoking five times more slowly than those at higher education levels. Twice as many people with four or more years of college quit smoking during the period than those without a high school diploma. In addition, fewer college-educated people started smoking than less educated people. The only demographic group in which the number of people starting to smoke cigarettes increased was less-educated women. However, this trend changed abruptly in 1987, when fewer less-educated women began to smoke. Nevertheless, the gap in the prevalence of smoking between groups of different levels of education suggests that health promotion efforts need to be evaluated.

Smoking patterns, including the number of cigarette smokers and the number of people stopping and starting smoking, were analyzed in terms of gender and race by the National Health Interview Surveys from 1974 to 1985. Smoking is considered to be the most preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Great effort has been made by public health professionals to decrease cigarette smoking in the last 25 years. The number men smoking has decreased linearly each year to 33.5 percent in 1985. Smoking by women decreased to 27.6 percent during the same period. Fewer men started smoking during the period, while the number of women starting to smoke remained the same. However, more women than men stopped smoking during the period. Smoking by whites and blacks decreased to 29.6 and 35.6 percent, respectively. Overall, fewer blacks than whites started smoking between 1974 and 1985. The prevalence of smoking has decreased for men and women, both black and white, although more slowly in women. A reduction in the number of people starting smoking, rather than the amount of those quitting the habit, is mostly responsible for the convergence of smoking patterns of men and women., Trends in the prevalence, initiation, and cessation of cigarette smoking are reported for the US population using weighted and age-standardized data from seven National Health Interview Surveys (1974 to 1985). The decline in prevalence was linear, with the prevalence for men decreasing at 0.91 percentage points per year to 33.5% in 1985 and the prevalence for women decreasing at 0.33 percentage points per year to 27.6% in 1985. For whites the rate of decline (percentage points per year) was 0.57, to 29.4% in 1985, and for blacks the decline was 0.67, to 35.6% in 1985. Smoking cessation increased among all gender-race groups from 1974 to 1985, with the yearly rate of increase (in percentage points per year) about equivalent for blacks (0.75 and whites (.77), while it was higher in women (0.90 than in men (0.67). Smoking initiation decreased among young men (-1.03), while it remained about the same in young women (+0.11). Initiation decreased at a more rapid rate in blacks (-1.02) than in whites (-0.35). We conclude that smoking prevalence is decreasing across all race-gender groups, although at a slower rate for women than men, and that differences in initiation, more than cessation, are primarily responsible for the converging of smoking prevalence rates among men and women.

In an analysis of recent behavior with regard to quitting smoking, detailed histories were obtained on a representative sample of 5,623 Americans who had smoked in the year preceding the 1986 Adult Use of Tobacco Survey. An estimated 55.8 million Americans smoked regularly for some period during the year prior to the survey. Approximately one third (34.8%) quit for at least a day during the year prior to the survey, 28.3% quit for at least 7 days during the year prior to the survey, and 16.2% were still not smoking at the time of the survey. Of those who quit for a day, 54% had relapsed by the time of the survey. Demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, race, marital status, and education, were evaluated as predictors of making a major attempt to quit for 7 days or more. Among those who had made a major attempt, a similar analysis was done predicting success in maintaining cessation for 3 months or more. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed that younger age and higher education predicted a major attempt to quit. There was only one group who differed markedly from all others: those who were younger and were more highly educated. Older age and being white predicted those who abstained for 3 months or longer. (J Natl Cancer Inst 82:1402–1406, 1990) [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]