14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new scientific research, published by experts at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, despite recent progress with programs designed to reduce the number of smokers in the United States, the prevalence of the habit has remained high, and has actually increased among specific groups. The paper also underlines the fact that existing programs are actually a lot more effective in preventing others from picking up the habit, but are much less so when it comes to persuading long-time smokers to quit. The results of the investigation will be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
“Regular, heavy cigarette use frequently characterizes nicotine dependence and is the pattern of use thought to be the most detrimental to health and longevity, but it has not been addressed in previous estimates of the decline in smoking prevalence. Rather, earlier research mainly addressed tobacco use or cigarette smoking per se rather than examining the frequency and duration of cigarette use in detail,” explains Mailman School of Public Health associate professor of epidemiology and principal investigator of the study, Renee Goodwin, PhD, quoted by PhysOrg.
Proportionally, the study also shows, the number of nicotine addicts in the current generation is larger than those in generations spanning the last few decades, despite the fact that the number of cigarette smokers has remained the same. This can only mean that only those who weren't avid smokers quit the habit, or started smoking less, whereas the hardcore tobacco “fans” remained entrenched in their old ways. Anti-cigarette campaigns have most likely pushed away any of those seeking to start smoking, Goodwin says, and therefore only the addicted smokers remained.
“Passage of this month’s law governing the regulation of tobacco products and its focus on preventing smoking initiation among children is important and timely as our findings suggest that the number of people who still smoke is considerable. Hopefully this legislation will help reduce the number addicted to nicotine in future generations since never smoking is the only sure way to prevent the development of nicotine dependence,” Goodwin adds.
“Given the mounting evidence that nicotine dependence plays a crucial role in smoking patterns, there is no question that future studies on curbing cigarette use need to take nicotine dependence into account,” she concludes. The study, entitled “Changes in Cigarette Use and Nicotine Dependence in the United States: Evidence from the 2001-2002 Wave of the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcoholism and Related Conditions,” used data from the 2001-2002 National Epidemiological Survey of Alcoholism and Related Conditions, and was sponsored with money from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.