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Price, location affects former daily smokers’ cessation habits

Factors such as tobacco outlet density and purchase price appear to affect the rate of tobacco consumption for converted non-daily smokers, according to recent research.

“Increasing rates of non-daily smokers in the United States elevate the need to better understand these complex patterns of cigarette use, especially as they seem impervious to traditional tobacco control efforts,” Thomas R Kirchner, PhD, from the NYU College of Global Public Health at New York University in New York, and colleagues wrote in their study. “Findings from this study suggest that converted non-daily smokers may be more sensitive to their local tobacco product landscape than are native non-daily smokers. This may be because conversion from daily smoking to non-daily smoking is a more viable and attractive alternative to cessation for smokers residing in areas with higher outlet density and associated lower prices. Even when retail zoning policies and taxes are enforced, outlet density remains higher in urban areas, increasing opportunities to shop around for prices and to make spontaneous purchases.”

Kirchner and colleagues evaluated 904 converted non-daily smokers and 297 native non-daily smokers who formerly smoked every day and have always smoked non-daily, respectively, according to the abstract. Based on each participants’ zip code, the researchers evaluated each smoker’s intentions to quit and purchasing habits, as well as the availability of tobacco outlets in their area.

They found that non-daily smoker participants had lower 6-month quit intentions when they lived in a zip code with a higher density of tobacco outlets, with price (G² = 66.1, P < 0.001) and locations (G² = 85.2, P < 0.001) affecting tobacco purchasing patterns, according to the abstract. Converted non-daily smoker participants were more likely to live in zip codes with higher density tobacco outlets and those participants in high density areas reported their smoking habits were affected by purchasing price (G² = 43.9, P < 0.001) and were more likely to shop around (G² = 59.3, P < 0.001) for better prices. Kirchner and colleagues noted that NDS participants in high density areas were less likely to be affected by purchase price of their preferred tobacco brand compared with participants in lower density areas. – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.