Key findings from the 2009 New Zealand ... - Ministry of Health

Chapter 7: Smoker Regret and Quitting Behaviour
This chapter presents information about the quit attempts of smokers and their reasons
for quitting, as well as smoker regret. Quitting smoking has immediate health benefits: it
reduces the risk of diseases caused by smoking and improves general health and
wellbeing (US Department of Health and Human Services 2006).
The term ‘recent quit attempter’ is used in this report to refer to a person who has made
a quit attempt in the past 12 months. A quit attempt is defined as a deliberate attempt
to stop smoking and succeeding for at least 24 hours. This definition includes current
smokers who have quit for more than 24 hours in the past 12 months, as well as people
who have successfully quit smoking 6–12 months ago and have remained abstinent.
Results are also presented for those who have quit smoking for at least a week in the
past 12 months, given that most relapses occur in the first eight days following a quit
attempt (Hughes et al 2004).
Most of the analysis in this section focuses on current smokers and casual smokers.
‘Casual smokers’ are defined as smokers who smoke less than once per month.
Smoker regret
Four out of five current smokers aged 15–64 years (80.0%, 77.2–82.8) said that they
would not smoke if they had their life over again. After adjusting for age, females
(82.5%, 79.1–85.9) were significantly more likely than males (76.2%, 71.5–80.9) to say
that they would not smoke if they had their life over again (p-value < 0.05). There were
no significant differences by age group, ethnic group or neighbourhood deprivation.
Quit attempts
In the 2009 NZTUS, adult participants aged 15–64 years were asked a series of
questions about whether they had considered quitting smoking, whether they had tried
to quit smoking and, if they had, how long they had quit for. These questions were not
asked of those who indicated that they ‘don’t smoke now’. Consequently, respondents
who have successfully quit smoking are not included in the following analyses.
Three out of five (63.2%, 60.3–66.1) current and casual smokers had tried to quit
smoking in the past five years.
Tobacco Use in New Zealand 43