Quitting Smoking, 1999-2003: Nicotine Addiction in Minnesota

This report describes Minnesotans’ efforts to quit smoking and provides an update to the findings from the 1999 Adult Tobacco Prevalence Survey that were presented in our July 2001 report, Quitting Smoking: Nicotine Addiction in Minnesota. Smokers in Minnesota made substantially more attempts to quit in the year prior to the 2003 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey than in the year prior to the 1999 Adult Tobacco Prevalence Survey. In addition, more smokers reported an increased readiness to make quit attempts. Most smokers also stated interest in using quitting assistance, which has become widely available to all Minnesotans in the past five years. Interest in stop-smoking medications remained high between 1999 and 2003, while interest increased in the stop-smoking telephone helplines made available in the last five years. Despite the availability of these resources, two-thirds of current smokers with recent quit attempts did not use any form of assistance, pointing to a major opportunity to help more Minnesotans quit successfully. The substantial increase in smokers’ quit attempts and the greater readiness to quit, together with high interest in effective quitting assistance, signal the start of what may become an important trend leading to decreases in the prevalence of smoking among adults in Minnesota. Because most smokers must make multiple attempts before quitting successfully, more time may be necessary to see these hopeful signs translate into reduced prevalence.