Comparison of Trends Smoking Cessation

Comparison of Trends in Smoking Cessation

Literature Review

This paper aims to present a chronologically organized literature review on comparisons of trends in smoking cessations. This would help interpret how studies have been conducted over time to investigate the smoking trends and their impact on the cessation of this health-risking habit. The chronological focus has also been set to view the factors of more interest for the researchers over time regarding smoking cessation.

An interesting study was conducted in Taiwan observing the time trend for smoking cessation long with secondhand smoking (Chiang & Chang, 2016). Demographic characteristics and relevant variables were taken into account for the study. The results showed that older people had higher smoking cessation rates than younger ones. Among females, the persistence for smoking was greater than men, meaning they were less interested in smoking cessation.

Gender trend was seen in one of the studies that depicted women finding it harder to quit smoking than men (Smith et al., 2016). As time trend was absent, the study still could be considered substantial in making evidence that former women were more likely to be current smokers without considering the year of the published study. The abstinence rate for women was lower than men, especially for longer periods.

Two trends have been explored in a study conducted in 2019 in which gender and geographical locations were also observed concerning smoking cessation for particular decades. The results showed that women on age 30 years had higher rates of smoking cessation who were born in the decade from 1980 to 2010 in most of the regions while men also showed greater cessation rate during the 2000s, specifically in East, South, and West Europe (Pesce et al., 2019).

Another study was conducted to determine the trends in tobacco use and smoking cessation, for which age was taken as the focus factor. When trends were analyzed from 2001 till 2014, people aged 65 or above from 2001 were taken from the data available on the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (Nishi et al., 2019). The results showed that two individuals claimed Medicare counseling services for tobacco cessation per year. When Medicare and CMS introduced counseling session types in the subsequent years, the counseling rate increased from 2012 to 2014.

A recent study conducted among Chinese people showed that Chinese men with lower educational levels tend to smoke more (He et al., 2020). As alcohol was also included in the effects of smoking patterns and cessation, it was further recognized that smoking persistence increased with the increase of alcohol. Diagnosis of chronic diseases and hypertension that had resulted from prolonged smoking was the prime reason for men to quit smoking.

Although hazards of smoking and the trend on which the former and current smokers have been continuing this habit have been observed, a notable study was conducted to see the cessation trend along with smoking. Though time trend was taken into account for this study since smoking-related diseases and deaths were witnessed from 1960 to 2020, it was certainly noted that the prevalence in former smokers who were in their middle aging years was high but quit smoking more effectively (Jha, 2020). Tobacco control for this age group is easier than older or even younger age groups. When there is a long delay in quitting this habit since it started, it becomes more difficult to prevent, and most of them even re-start it.

One of the latest studies revealed that social norms for smoking were evident between particular periods, implying a time trend in the previous literature has been of interest to the researchers. The geographical regions like Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia were selected from the longitudinal International Tobacco Control Four Country Survey with wave 1 to wave 9 (2002 to 2015) (East et al., 2021). When close friends smoke, the smoking cessation was lower for the daily smokers, and this trend kept consistent between 2002 till 2015, except in the years 2006 and 2007 when cessation was observed to be higher. This pattern was higher in the United States while very low in the United Kingdom compared to Canada and Australia.

Likewise, a recent global investigation was run for the time trend in smoking cessation for individuals aged ten years and older along with 10-14 years of age (GBD 2019 Tobacco Collaborators, 2021). However, it was also revealed that individuals aged 15 years and above were also interested in smoking cessation. This study’s data was taken from national surveys, both multinational and country-specific. Former and current smokers were analyzed for stocking to dose-response linkages in cessation. From the time of cessation, there was highly dispersed data for the intensity of smoking and the time duration for quitting the habit. However, former smokers showed lesser health risks from their time of cessation.

In conclusion, the literature review demonstrates that most studies have been conducted with time and age trends while some for gender trends in smoking cessation. The time trends consider the smoking cessation patterns from 1960 or 1980 till 2010 or 2019. Moreover, females have been noticed to find difficulty quitting smoking, and their abstinence duration is shorter than men. In contrast, comes the information that young women of age 30 years stop smoking due to, most probably, pregnancy-related prevention. Older people also quit smoking once diagnosed with risky illnesses such as COPD. Further, social norms and demographic characteristics also played a significant role in cessation as close friends smoke and lower education levels, the individuals find it hard to quit smoking, regardless of whether they are current/daily smokers or former ones.

Comparing age and time trends indicates that smoking cessation interventions mostly depend on behavioral and pharmacotherapies (United States Public Health Service Office of the Surgeon General, 2020). The combination of both has been studied to be effective; however, if used separately, they are also effective for certain diverse ethnic groups, age, gender or socioeconomic class, etc. Time trend could be suggested as the better trend for smoking cessation and its interventions since people of different age groups would be aging in different years. Their willingness to quit smoking at a certain age could also be observed better. For instance, a person who was a teenager during the 1980s and now is an adult after the 2000s could be studied for comparison for his onset of smoking habit, time length of smoking habit, and his readiness to quit in his adult age.

References

Chiang, C. & Chang, H. (2016). A population study on the time trend of cigarette smoking, cessation, and exposure to secondhand smoking from 2001 to 2013 in Taiwan. Population Health Metrics, 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-016-0109-x

East, K.A., Hitchman, S.C., McNeill, A., Ferguson, S.G., Yong, H., Cummings, K.M., Fong, G.T. & Borland, R. (2021). Trends in social norms towards smoking between 2002 and 2015 among daily smokers: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Four Country Survey (ITC 4C). Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 23(1), 203-211. https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntz179