Calls for an effective alternative for the remaining smokers
04th Oct 2021
Only one in three smokers wants to quit for good. This is the conclusion from a new study conducted by researchers at the Norwegian National Institute of Public Health’s department for intoxicants and tobacco.
Little interest in quitting to smoke
Tobacco researchers Karl Erik Lund and Gunnar Sæbø are the authors behind a new article on the interest to quit smoking among remaining smokers. It is, inter alia, based on a new survey covering about 800 smokers. The survey shows that the size of the segment of smokers who have a high or a very high interest to quit smoking is 31 percent, whereas almost half of the smokers, 49 percent, show little or no interest in quitting. The remaining 20 percent show medium interest. In the figures that public health authorities in Norway use in campaign materials, it is stated that between 60 and 70 percent of smokers want to quit– but the estimate includes smokers who are doubtful and insecure.
Lund considers that the results indicate that healthier alternatives need to be more accessible to covert the remaining smokers:
– The results from our survey show that it may be time to facilitate better transition from life-threatening tobacco products to less harmful products, such as e-cigarettes and snus, says Karl Erik Lund to the Norwegian news agency NTB.
Read the full article (in Norwegian) here.
