Public knowledge and attitudes regarding smoking and smoking cessation treatments

To investigate current public knowledge and attitudes to tobacco smoking and smoking cessation treatments.

A telephone survey of 250 individuals randomly selected from the Christchurch Electoral Roll and assigned into one of three groups: current, ex and life-time never smokers.

Significantly more current than ex-smokers cited habit as a major reason for continuing to smoke and a greater number reported using nicotine transdermal patches during a cessation attempt. Fewer ever smokers than never smokers stated health as a likely major motivation for cessation by smokers and believed doctors' advice and illness of a significant other highly influenced quit attempts. 55.7% of respondents believed nicotine patches to be the most effective smoking cessation method followed by 'cold turkey' (49.4%) and hypnotherapy (33.9%). While the majority of participants supported banning tobacco advertising (69.6%), banning tobacco sponsorship (59.6%), lower insurance rates for non-smokers (89.1%) and fully subsidised smoking cessation programmes (71.9%), significant differences were detected between groups regarding attitudes to tobacco control initiatives.

This sample were relatively ill informed regarding smoking practices in New Zealand and unaware of useful information to aid cessation. While evidence emerged to support current smokers being slightly better informed regarding proven strategies for cessation than ex-smokers, few current smokers were aware of efficacious interventions for smoking cessation.