Disparities in smoking and cessation status among cancer survivors and non-cancer individuals: a population-based study from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Continued smoking after a cancer diagnosis is a critical problem. This study examined smoking prevalence among all and specific cancer survivors, and compared demographic profiles of the current smokers between cancer and non-cancer individuals.We used data from 2,188 cancer survivors and 22,441 non-cancer individuals who participated in the 10-year National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES 1999-2008). All analyses were weighted to represent the United States population.The current smoking rates decreased as age increased in both cancer and non-cancer populations. The smoking rate was higher in young cancer survivors (age=40) than in young non-cancer individuals. The cervical, colon cancer and melanoma survivors had higher age-adjusted smoking rates than survivors of other cancers. For non-cancer individuals, the results showed that poorer white males with lower educational levels, with widowed, divorced, or separated marital status, who were underweight and had at least 12 alcoholic beverages a year, were more likely to be current smokers.We can observe that age, race, education, marital status, and year since cancer diagnosis were important predictors of smoking status in cancer survivors based on the results of multivariable modeling and comparisons of age-adjusted smoking rates in specific cancer sub-groups. This implies that developing smoking cessation programs for cervical cancer and melanoma is of particularly high priority because survivors of these cancers had relatively high smoking rates and low quit smoking rates after diagnosis. These efforts should improve their quality of life and health status as well as reduce smoking-related health disparities.