title: Reasons to quit and barriers to quitting smoking in US young adults.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Young adulthood provides an enormous opportunity to alter trajectories of smoking behaviour for a large public health impact.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to examine correlates of perceived barriers to quitting smoking and reasons to quit in a sample of young adult current and former smokers.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study used data from the 2011 National Young Adult Health Survey, a random-digit-dial cellphone survey. Participants were US young adult current smokers aged 18-34 (n = 699) and young adults who were either current smokers who had made a quit attempt in the past-year (n = 402) or former smokers (n = 289). Correlates of barriers to quitting smoking and reasons for quitting smoking were assessed using bivariate and multivariable analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More than half of current smokers identified 'loss of a way to handle stress' (59%) and 'cravings or withdrawal' (52%) as barriers to quitting. Female gender, daily smoking and intention to quit remained significantly associated with endorsing 'loss of a way to handle stress' as a barrier to quitting in multivariable analyses. The two most popular reasons for quitting smoking were physical fitness (64%) and the cost of tobacco (64%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings highlight barriers to cessation and the reasons that young smokers give for quitting. This information may be helpful to physicians as they counsel their young adult patients to quit smoking.
authors.affiliation: The Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at Truth Initiative, Washington, DC, Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Andrea C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Villanti
authors.affiliation: Center for Tobacco Studies, Rutgers School of Public Health, New Brunswick, NJ.
authors.forename: Michelle T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Bover Manderski
authors.affiliation: Center for Tobacco Studies, Rutgers School of Public Health, New Brunswick, NJ, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ and.
authors.forename: Daniel A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Gundersen
authors.affiliation: Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ and Department of Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Michael B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Steinberg
authors.affiliation: Center for Tobacco Studies, Rutgers School of Public Health, New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ and delnevo@sph.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Cristine D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Delnevo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D066249:Craving; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cross-sectional studies; preventive medicine; smoking; smoking cessation; tobacco use; young adult.