[Cross-sectional survey on smoking and smoking cessation behaviors among Chinese adults in 2010]

To describe the prevalence of smoking and smoking cessation in Chinese adults in 2010.

A face-to-face questionnaire survey was carried out in 162 surveillance points to collect information on non-communicable diseases related risk factors. Multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method was used to select 98 712 individuals aged 18 and over to be interviewed and 98 526 records were included in the analysis of smoking and smoking cessation. Sample was weighted to represent the population of Chinese adults. Indicators such as current smoking and smoking cessation among different population were calculated.

Current smoking rate of our sample was 26.4% (26 047/98 526). With complex weighting, current smoking rate in Chinese adults aged 18 and above was 28.3% (95%CI: 27.2% - 29.4%), which is much higher among men (53.3%, 95%CI: 51.4% - 55.2%) than in women (2.5%, 95%CI: 1.9% - 3.0%) (P < 0.05). Most male current smokers (88.3%, 95%CI: 87.3% - 89.3%) smoked every day and average daily manufacture cigarettes consumption of male adults was (17.8 ± 9.3) cigarettes. Only 14.8% (95%CI: 13.8% - 15.8%) of male ever smokers quitted smoking and 10.7% (95%CI: 9.9% - 11.5%) quitted smoking. Only 38.8% (95%CI: 36.9% - 40.8%) of male current smokers intended to quit smoking. For current smokers aged from 18 to 24, proportion of those who intended to quit smoking was highest (50.5%, 95%CI: 46.1% - 54.8%), but proportion of those who quitted smoking (7.1%, 95%CI: 5.2% - 8.9%) was lowest comparing with other age groups (P < 0.05).

Prevalence of smoking in Chinese adults was high and only a few smokers quit smoking. Prevalence of smoking in Chinese male adults was still high. Fairly low proportion of male current smokers intend to quit smoking and even lower proportion of them quit smoking successfully.