Smoking patterns among social contacts of smokers, ex-smokers, and never smokers: the Doctors Helping Smokers Study

Smoking status of spouses/partners and other social contacts was examined among 5,241 adults who had recently visited a family physician. Associations between smoking status and proportion of social contacts who smoke among men and women of three different age groups were assessed by analysis of covariance, with age and education as covariates. The proportion of smoking contacts was found to be greatest for smokers, less for ex-smokers, and least for never smokers. Comparison of data across four types of social contacts by smoking groups suggests that, in general, the social contacts of ex-smokers more strongly resemble those of never smokers than those of current smokers. The results suggest that smokers desiring to become nonsmokers need to enlarge their social group to include more nonsmoking contacts, as well as to learn and use coping strategies to prevent relapse in the presence of smokers.