In order for the prevalence of cigarette smoking to reduce, young people have
to be discouraged from starting to smoke, and existing smokers have to be
encouraged to stop. Since 1992, the GHS has asked three questions relevant to
the likelihood of a smoker giving up: whether they would like to stop smoking,
and two indicators of dependence - whether they think they would find it easy or
difficult not to smoke for a whole day, and how soon after waking they smoke
their first cigarette.
- In 2000, 55% of smokers felt that it would be either very or fairly difficult to go without smoking for a whole day.
- Not surprisingly, heavier smokers were more likely to say they would find it very difficult: 55% of those smoking 20 or more cigarettes a day did so, compared with only 5% of those smoking fewer than 10 cigarettes a day.
Since women are less likely to be heavy smokers than men, it might be expected that women would be less likely to say they would find it hard to stop smoking for a day, but this was not the case:
- overall, 33% of women, compared with 27% of men, said they would find it very difficult not to smoke for a day, and among those smoking 20 or more cigarettes a day the difference was particularly marked: 64% of women, compared with 49% of men, said they would find it very difficult.
For an attempt to stop smoking to be successful, the smoker must want to stop, and in 2000, more than two thirds of all smokers (72% of men and 71% of women) said they would like to stop smoking altogether. The relationship between wanting to stop smoking and the number of cigarettes smoked is not straightforward. In every survey since the questions were first included in 1992, the proportion wanting to give up has been highest among those smoking on average 10-19 cigarettes a week. It is interesting that it is not the heaviest smokers who are most likely to want to stop, it may be that they feel it would be too difficult or that they have been discouraged from wanting to stop by previous attempts that were unsuccessful.
In 2000, 15% of smokers had their first cigarette within five minutes of waking up.
- Heavy smokers were more likely than light smokers to smoke immediately on waking up: 31% of those smoking 20 or more cigarettes a day did so, compared with only 2% of those smoking fewer than 10 a day.
- About one quarter of all smokers, but only 4% of those smoking 20 or more a day, had their first cigarette two hours or more after waking.
There were no significant differences between men and women smokers in the time between waking and smoking, either overall, or having taken account of different consumption levels.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, the shorter the time between waking and smoking the first cigarette, the more likely smokers were to say they would find it difficult not to smoke for a whole day. Among those who smoked their first cigarette within five minutes of waking, for example, 85% said they would find it difficult not to smoke for a day, while the equivalent figure for those who waited at least two hours before smoking was only 18%.
Thus, having taken account of the fact that women smoke fewer cigarettes a day than men, there is no difference between men and women smokers in the proportions wanting to give up, nor in the more objective of the two indicators of dependence (how soon they smoke after waking up) but women smokers are more likely to perceive themselves as dependent. This is confirmed by Table 8.34, which shows that for each objective level of dependence, women are more likely than men to think they would find it very difficult to give up smoking for a day.
The relationship between these indicators of dependence and consumption level alters little if age is taken into account as well, except that, within each consumption level, smokers aged 16-24 were less likely than older smokers to think it would be difficult to stop smoking for a day, and smokers aged 60 and over were the least likely to want to give up. Although the GHS can throw no light on the reasons for these differences, the youngest smokers have probably not smoked for long enough to feel dependent, and those aged 60 and over may have been discouraged from wanting to give up by previous failures, or may feel that they are at an age when giving up will make little difference to their health.
Table 8.35 shows that there has been very little change since 1992 in the three measures of dependence described here.