Social smoker identity and associations with smoking and quitting behaviour: A cross-sectional study in England

'Social smoking' typically occurs predominantly or exclusively in the presence of others who are smoking. Relatively little is known about changes in the prevalence of 'social smoking identity' over time and its association with other smoking-related correlates.

Data were from the Smoking Toolkit Study, a nationally-representative cross-sectional survey in England. Participants were 26,774 adults who currently smoked or had quit in the past year, surveyed between February-2014 and April-2021. We estimated the proportion identifying as having a social smoking identity, changes over time, and associations with smoking in social situations, cigarette dependence, motivation to stop, quit attempts and success.

Of adults who currently smoked or had quit in the past year, 34.0% (95% Confidence Interval (CI)=33.5-34.6) identified as having a social smoking identity. There was a near linear increase in this proportion from 31.9% (95%CI=29.7-34.2) in February-2014 to 36.5% (95%CI=34.1-38.9) in April-2021. Adults who currenty smoked identifying as having a social smoking identity were less cigarette dependent (adjusted B=0.34, 95%CI=0.31-0.37) and more motivated to stop (aOR=1.20, 95%CI=1.15-1.26) than those who did not. Adults who currently smoked or had quit in the past year identifying as having a social smoking identity reported more smoking in social situations (aOR=6.45, 95%CI=6.13-6.80) and past-year quit attempts (aOR=1.22, 95%CI=1.14-1.30) than those who did not. Quit success was not associated with having a social smoking identity among adults who currently smoked or had quit in the past year and who had attempted to quit (aOR=0.90, 95%CI=0.79-1.02).

An increasing proportion, over a third, of adults who currently smoked or had quit in the past year in England identify as having a social smoking identity. Despite being associated with lower dependence, greater motivation to quit and more quit attempts, social smoking identity is not associated with greater quit success, suggesting a complex interplay between identity and smoking-related behaviours.