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. 2021 Jul;42(4):281-287.
doi: 10.4082/kjfm.19.0134. Epub 2021 Jul 20.

Trend in Prevalence of Smoking and Motivation to Quit among Korean Adult Male Cancer Survivors over the Last 8 Years: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey V-VII (2010-2017)

Seung Won Cheon  1 , Seung Guk Park  1 , Sun Mi Yoo  1 , Hyo Eun Kim  1 , Hyun Ji Kim  1
Affiliations

Trend in Prevalence of Smoking and Motivation to Quit among Korean Adult Male Cancer Survivors over the Last 8 Years: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey V-VII (2010-2017)

Seung Won Cheon et al. Korean J Fam Med. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to investigate trends in the prevalence of current smokers and motivation to quit among Korean male cancer survivors.

Methods: Out of 20,012 men who participated in the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey V (2010-2012), VI (2013-2015), and VII (2016-2017), 742 cancer survivors were included. A cancer survivor was defined as a person who concurred to the item, "The cancer has been diagnosed by a doctor" in the health questionnaire. Smoking status was classified as current, former, and never smokers. Regarding motivation to quit smoking, we defined those who had a willingness to quit within 6 months as the willing group. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine trends in the prevalence of current smokers and the proportion of the willing group among current smokers.

Results: Overall, 3.7% of Korean men who participated in the study were cancer survivors. Current smokers constituted 19.5%, 19.1%, and 15.3% of cancer survivors in phases V, VI, and VII respectively which did not show significant changes (P for trend=0.33). However, the proportion of current smokers in the non-cancer group was significantly reduced to 46.6%, 41.2%, and 38.9% in phases V, VI, and VII, respectively (P for trend <0.001). The proportion of those with a motivation to quit smoking did not show a significant trend in the cancer survivors (P for trend=0.964) and non-cancer group (P for trend=0.884).

Conclusion: Prevalence of current smokers and motivation to quit in Korean male cancer survivors did not show significant trends.

Keywords: Cancer Survivors; Health Survey; Prevalence; Smoking; Smoking Cessation.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Figures

Figure. 1.
Figure. 1.
Flow diagram of the study participants. KNHANES, Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Figure. 2.
Figure. 2.
Prevalence of current smoking rate among cancer survivors and noncancer group according to years. *P for trends are calculated by logistic regression analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Smoking Cessation in Cancer Survivors.
    Cho YG. Cho YG. Korean J Fam Med. 2021 Jul;42(4):258-259. doi: 10.4082/kjfm.42.4E. Epub 2021 Jul 20. Korean J Fam Med. 2021. PMID: 34320793 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

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