Learning Objectives: Understand trends in quantity smoked (in terms of the number of days smoked and the quantity smoked per day) for all smokers and for particular socio-demographic groups, how trends in quantity smoked and smoking prevalence are related to tobacco control policies, and to understand the relationship between quantity smoked and smoking-related deaths.
Abstract: Evidence indicates that earlier trends toward declining smoking prevalence in the United States slowed during most of the 1990s. Nevertheless, the total number of cigarettes smoked continued to decline. This decline in quantity smoked may be due to a reduction in the number of cigarettes smoked per day or in the number of days smoked. Evidence indicates that about 20% of smokers smoke only some days, and this percent has been increasing.
While smoking prevalence has not declined at the desired rates in Healthy Peope 2000, reductions in quantity have implications for future declines in smoking rates through cessation and are themselves linked to lower death rates (i.e., through harm reduction). This presentation will look at the changes in quantity smoked during the 1990s and how those trends were decomposed into reductions in the number of days smoked and the number of cigarettes smoked per day. We will also discuss the role of tobacco control policies in affecting these changes, and how reductions in quantity smoked affect smoking-related deaths.
We will use data from the NCI’s Tobacco Use Supplement to examine trends in days smoked and smoking per day by all smokers and by particular demographic groups (especially age and racial/ethnic groups). We will also use the SimSmoke computer simulation model to examine the effect of tobacco control policies. SimSmoke demonstrates what is known from the scientific literature concerning the relative effectiveness of various policy approaches to the prevention of smoking and its consequences.
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