The California Tobacco Control Program's effect on adult smokers: (1) Smoking cessation.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate national population trends in long-term smoking cessation by age group and to compare cessation rates in California (CA) with those of two comparison groups of states.


METHODS
Retrospective smoking history of a population sample from the US: from CA, with a comprehensive tobacco-control programme since 1989 with the goal of denormalising tobacco use; from New York and New Jersey (NY & NJ), with similar high cigarette prices but no comprehensive programme; and from the tobacco-growing states (TGS), with low cigarette prices, no tobacco-control programme and social norms relatively supportive of tobacco use.


METHODS
Respondents to the Current Population Survey-Tobacco Use Supplements (1992-2002; n = 57 918 non-Hispanic white ever-smokers).


METHODS
The proportion of recent ever-smokers attaining long-term abstinence (quit > or = 1 year) and the successful-quit ratio (the proportion of all ever-smokers abstinent > or = 1 year).


RESULTS
Nationally, long-term cessation rates increased by 25% from the 1980s to the 1990s, averaging 3.4% per year in the 1990s. Cessation increased for all age groups, and by > 40% (p<0.001) among smokers aged 20-34 years. For smokers aged < 50 years, higher cigarette prices were associated with higher quitting rates. For smokers aged < 35 years, quitting rates in CA were higher than in either comparison group (p<0.05). Half of the ever-smokers had quit smoking by age 44 years in CA, 47 years in NY & NJ, and by age 54 years in TGS.


CONCLUSIONS
Successful smoking cessation increased by 25% during the 1990s in the US. Comprehensive tobacco-control programmes were associated with greater cessation success than were with high cigarette prices alone, although both effects were limited to younger adults.
Messer
Karen
K
Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Moores UCSD Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, 3855 Health Sciences Drive, La Jolla, California 92093-0901, USA.
Pierce
John P
JP
Zhu
Shu-Hong
SH
Hartman
Anne M
AM
Al-Delaimy
Wael K
WK
Trinidad
Dennis R
DR
Gilpin
Elizabeth A
EA
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002140:California / Q000453:epidemiology; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009515:New Jersey / Q000453:epidemiology; D009518:New York / Q000453:epidemiology; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000074606:Smoking Prevention