Smoking Pattern and Quitting Efforts among Korean Adult Smokers

Introduction: Smoking has been known as a preventable risk factor of a number of diseases and death of population. Adults' smoking prevalence is the highest among Asian countries in Korea. The adults' smoking rate has been decreasing with nation-wide anti-smoking campaigns after enacting of “The Health Promotion Act” in 1995. However it is still higher than other developed countries. This study was to investigate the patters of smoking and quitting among Korean adults smokers to develop effective anti-smoking program.

Method: Data were collected from two quit smoking clinics in two Public Health Centers by three professional counselors. Question items included current smoking patterns (smoking period, daily smoking amount, nicotine dependency), past cesation efforts (trial, motives of quitting, method, reasons of failure, etc), and socio-demographics.

Results: A total of 1,397 were responded, male was 88.8%, 40~50 aged was 68%, about 25% were business owners. Mean smoking duration was 23.4(±11.8) years, daily 22.6(±10.9) cigarettes were smoked a day, 62.5% (very high, 27.4%) were in more than moderate nicotine dependency. More than 55% of participants tried to quit smoking without any support only with their will, the major reasons of failure of quitting was weak self efficacy (41.3%) and stress (32.5%).

Conclusion: Participants in smoking cessation program were not equally distributed in the population. There is a need to develop a specific program including other age groups and employees along to settings such as school and worksite. Also effective support should be taken for current smokers.