Changes in Smoking Habits in the American Cancer Society CPS I During 12 Years of Follow-Up

The question whether smokers who continue to smoke after large numbers of their smoking peers have quit represent a group who has more difficulty quitting can be examined in studies which provide longitudinal follow-up of groups of smokers (see Chapter 5). The Cancer Prevention Study I (CPS I) of the American Cancer Society (Garfinkel 1985) followed over one million subjects over a 12.75-year period. At baseline and at four follow-up surveys, subjects provided information about current smoking habits. Changes in smoking behaviors over time can be examined for evidence of falling cessation rates among the residual smokers in the population and trends toward the residual population of smokers being disproportionately composed of heavy smokers as lighter smokers quit in larger numbers. The focus of this chapter is on descriptive analyses of the cessation rates and changing smoking behaviors of current smokers in the CPS I. The data contained in this chapter describe smoking behaviors that ar