Abstract
Introduction: Accurately assessing quit attempt history is important to develop population estimates of cessation and to increase our understanding of smoking trajectories. Thus, the current study investigated failure to report quit attempts as a function of length of quit attempt by time since quit attempt over the past year. Methods: The present study used data from the Smoking Toolkit Study, a series of population-based surveys of smokers and recent ex-smokers in England aged 16. years and older. Among the 11,772 smokers identified at baseline (24.4% of the total sample), this study focused on the 4234 participants (36.0% of current smokers) who reported between one and three quit attempts in the past year. Results: There was a strong trend for quit attempts that lasted for shorter periods of time to fail to be reported. After three months, 90.1% of those lasting less than one day, 63.7% of those lasting between a day a one week, and 38.9% of those lasting between one week and one month failed to be reported. Conclusion: A large proportion of unsuccessful quit attempts fail to be reported, particularly if they only last a short time or occurred longer ago. Therefore, population estimates of quit attempts based on retrospective data may be considerable underestimates and estimates of the success of quit attempts may be overestimates. Future research is needed to establish whether there is differential reporting of quit attempts as a function of features of attempts such as use of cessation aids.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 900-904 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Addictive Behaviors |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2010 |
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Keywords
- Assessment
- Quit attempts
- Smoking cessation
- Tobacco control
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychiatry and Mental health
- Clinical Psychology
- Toxicology
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
Cite this
Failure to report attempts to quit smoking. / Berg, Carla J.; An, Lawrence C.; Kirch, Matthias; Guo, Hongfei; Thomas, Janet L.; Patten, Christi Ann; Ahluwalia, Jasjit S.; West, Robert.
In: Addictive Behaviors, Vol. 35, No. 10, 10.2010, p. 900-904.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Failure to report attempts to quit smoking
AU - Berg, Carla J.
AU - An, Lawrence C.
AU - Kirch, Matthias
AU - Guo, Hongfei
AU - Thomas, Janet L.
AU - Patten, Christi Ann
AU - Ahluwalia, Jasjit S.
AU - West, Robert
PY - 2010/10
Y1 - 2010/10
N2 - Introduction: Accurately assessing quit attempt history is important to develop population estimates of cessation and to increase our understanding of smoking trajectories. Thus, the current study investigated failure to report quit attempts as a function of length of quit attempt by time since quit attempt over the past year. Methods: The present study used data from the Smoking Toolkit Study, a series of population-based surveys of smokers and recent ex-smokers in England aged 16. years and older. Among the 11,772 smokers identified at baseline (24.4% of the total sample), this study focused on the 4234 participants (36.0% of current smokers) who reported between one and three quit attempts in the past year. Results: There was a strong trend for quit attempts that lasted for shorter periods of time to fail to be reported. After three months, 90.1% of those lasting less than one day, 63.7% of those lasting between a day a one week, and 38.9% of those lasting between one week and one month failed to be reported. Conclusion: A large proportion of unsuccessful quit attempts fail to be reported, particularly if they only last a short time or occurred longer ago. Therefore, population estimates of quit attempts based on retrospective data may be considerable underestimates and estimates of the success of quit attempts may be overestimates. Future research is needed to establish whether there is differential reporting of quit attempts as a function of features of attempts such as use of cessation aids.
AB - Introduction: Accurately assessing quit attempt history is important to develop population estimates of cessation and to increase our understanding of smoking trajectories. Thus, the current study investigated failure to report quit attempts as a function of length of quit attempt by time since quit attempt over the past year. Methods: The present study used data from the Smoking Toolkit Study, a series of population-based surveys of smokers and recent ex-smokers in England aged 16. years and older. Among the 11,772 smokers identified at baseline (24.4% of the total sample), this study focused on the 4234 participants (36.0% of current smokers) who reported between one and three quit attempts in the past year. Results: There was a strong trend for quit attempts that lasted for shorter periods of time to fail to be reported. After three months, 90.1% of those lasting less than one day, 63.7% of those lasting between a day a one week, and 38.9% of those lasting between one week and one month failed to be reported. Conclusion: A large proportion of unsuccessful quit attempts fail to be reported, particularly if they only last a short time or occurred longer ago. Therefore, population estimates of quit attempts based on retrospective data may be considerable underestimates and estimates of the success of quit attempts may be overestimates. Future research is needed to establish whether there is differential reporting of quit attempts as a function of features of attempts such as use of cessation aids.
KW - Assessment
KW - Quit attempts
KW - Smoking cessation
KW - Tobacco control
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77954313858&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77954313858&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.addbeh.2010.06.009
DO - 10.1016/j.addbeh.2010.06.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 20584571
AN - SCOPUS:77954313858
VL - 35
SP - 900
EP - 904
JO - Addictive Behaviors
JF - Addictive Behaviors
SN - 0306-4603
IS - 10
ER -