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More smokers attempt to quit as smoking prevalence drops

As smoking prevalence declines over time, more smokers nationwide are attempting to quit, according to study results.

The results go against the belief that as smoking prevalence declines, smokers that remain include higher proportions of hardcore smokers who are less likely to quit.

Margarete C. Kulik

“The fact that the smoking population is softening has important implications for public health policy,” Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco, said in a press release. “These results suggest that current tobacco control policies have been leading to softening of the smoking population without the need to promote new recreational nicotine products like e-cigarettes.”

Glantz and Margarete C. Kulik, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at the Center, analyzed survey data spanning 18 years nationwide and 6 years in the European Union to assess quit attempts, quit ratios and number of cigarettes smoked on smoking prevalence over time.

For every 1% decrease in smoking prevalence nationwide, more smokers attempted to quit smoking (0.55%, P < .001). Quit attempts remained stable in the European Union as smoking prevalence dropped.

Quit ratios nationwide increased by 1.13% for each 1% decrease in smoking prevalence (P < .001).

And daily cigarette consumptions among remaining smokers decreased by 0.32 cigarettes nationwide and 0.22 cigarettes in EU (P < .001 for both).

Kulik, in the release, said the results do not justify promoting products such as e-cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, but rather, that current tobacco control policies such as tobacco taxation are working.

“We show that there is no real need to distribute e-cigarettes as part of tobacco policy package because the smoking population is softening,” she said. “Tobacco control policies should continue to move the population down these softening curves rather than changing policies to promote new forms of nicotine delivery, especially ones like e-cigarettes that are very appealing to children.” – by Ryan McDonald

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.