Determinants of stopping cigarette smoking in Italy

The relation between socio-demographic factors, general lifestyle habits, smoking-related variables and rates for stopping cigarette smoking was evaluated using data from the 1983 Italian National Health Survey, on the basis of a sample of 19,472 males (15,473 current and 3,999 ex-smokers) and 7,371 females (6,707 current and 664 ex-smokers), representative of the whole Italian population of smokers. Overall rates for stopping (20.5% for males and 9.0% for females) were substantially lower than those observed over comparable calendar periods in other western countries. Besides age, and after allowance for it, stopping smoking was positively associated with higher education and socio-economic status, greater body mass index and the presence of smoking-related symptoms or diseases. Further, a strong inverse association was observed with coffee consumption, and a direct one with physical leisure activity. There was an U-shaped relation between average number of cigarettes per day and stopping smoking, since rates were lower for intermediate (15 to 24 cigarettes per day) smokers, and elevated both for light and heavy smokers, probably reflecting a lower degree of addiction and a greater prevalence of smoking-related disorders, respectively. The effect of most factors was independent, and these associations with quitting rate ratios were still evident after simultaneous allowance by means of multiple logistic regression. The existence of smoking related diseases or symptoms was the most frequent reason for quitting (50.7%); 30.3% reported to have stopped because of knowledge of the health consequences of smoking, 1.3% for economic reasons and 17.6% for other or undefined reasons.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)