Barriers to successful cessation among young late-onset smokers

Abstract

Aims: To understand the barriers to cessation among young late-onset smokers (young adults who started smoking daily after turning 18). Such information is crucial to the development of interventions aimed at reducing the high smoking prevalence among young adults.

Method: The New Zealand Smoking Monitor is a fortnightly telephone survey of current smokers and recent quitters. This study focused on responses from a group of late-onset smokers aged 18 to 28 years (N = 111), who were temporarily (for 11 fortnights) added to the monitor.

Results: Most respondents had low nicotine dependence and were actively trying to quit (81% had made at least one attempt that lasted 24 hours or longer in the last year). One-half had high self-efficacy to quit and three-quarters did not intend to use cessation aids. Smoking was tightly linked to drinking alcohol and conferred social benefits (eg, 51% agreed "smoking helped me to socialise").

Conclusion: The tendency not to use cessation aids, strong links between smoking and drinking, and the social benefits of smoking may act as barriers to successful cessation among young late-onset smokers. Policies and interventions aimed at breaking associations between smoking, drinking and socialising (eg, smokefree bars) could be effective for this group.