Monitoring cigarette smoking prevalence in Britain in a timely fashion.
BACKGROUND
Available estimates of cigarette smoking prevalence from the General Household Survey (GHS), the source of official smoking data in Britain, can be over a year out of date. With a number of policy initiatives being undertaken at national level, it would be useful to be able to track changes in a more timely manner.


OBJECTIVE
We compared prevalence estimates from the Omnibus Survey, a monthly survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics, with those from the General Household Survey in order to examine whether they may provide a complementary and more timely source of cigarette smoking prevalence data.


RESULTS
The age and socio-economic structure of the samples from the Omnibus and GHS surveys was very similar. When data from monthly Omnibus Surveys for the year 2000 were combined, prevalence estimates were within 1% point of those from the GHS for 2000, and overall sample sizes were also similar. The Omnibus data show a significant linear decline in prevalence between 1999 and 2002 of about 0.4% per year. This coincides with the introduction of a national strategy for reducing smoking prevalence.


CONCLUSIONS
The Omnibus Survey can be a useful additional tool for assessing changes in smoking prevalence.
Jarvis
Martin J
MJ
Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK. martin.jarvis@ucl.ac.uk
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000639:trends; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology