ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION STATUS IN SMOKERS AND EFFECTS OF DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY ON SMOKING CESSATION TREATMENT

Abstract

smoking prevalence rates in Australia stalled, prompting concerns that the Australian smoking population was hardening and that new approaches, and particularly e-cigarettes, are needed to achieve further prevalence declines. This study investigated three waves of the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (2010, 2013 and 2016) to identify if Australian smokers were becoming increasingly hardcore and resistant to quitting. Methods. Data was derived from three waves of the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) from 2010, 2013 and 2016. The NDSHS are household based, cross-sectional, and nationally representative surveys. The target population was non-institutional residents of Australia aged 12 years and older. Sampling weights were included in the analysis in order to standardise all analysis performed to the Australian population. We used two definitions of hardcore smoker to determine a range of hardcore smoking rates from the most stringent definition as proposed by Emery et al to the most inclusive with a simple criteria of not motivated to quit. Results. The results demonstrate that Australian smokers are not hardening. The most stringent definition of hardcore smoking had a rate of around 1% of hardcore smoking in the population or around 7% of smokers. Around 30% of smokers said they did not intend to quit. However at a population level, this equates to a smoking prevalence of 5.49% declining significantly to 4.85 (p=0.02). Conclusion. Calls for access to e-cigarettes to further reduce smoking rates on the basis that remaining smokers are unable or unwilling to quit should be critically evaluated. Tobacco control must focus on interventions which will prevent smoking initiation, increase quit attempts, achieve successful and sustained smoking abstinence and address the needs of low socioeconomic and middle aged smokers. LB1867