Study: Most College Smokers Don't QuitApril 15, 2004
Research Summary
A University of Wisconsin-Madison study finds that 90 percent of college students who smoked daily and 50 percent of occasional smokers were still smoking four years after graduating, dispelling the belief that most college-aged students can quit within a few years.The study involved 647 freshmen and sophomores enrolled in an introductory psychology class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Students were categorized based on their smoking behavior. Four years later, 548 of the students participated in a follow-up study.
The results found that only 13 percent of the daily smokers had quit, 28 percent had become occasional smokers, and 59 percent remained daily smokers. Among occasional smokers, 51 percent had stopped smoking, 35 percent remained occasional smokers, and 14 percent had become daily smokers.
Of the non-smokers, 89 percent remained non-smokers, 11 percent had become occasional smokers and none were daily smokers.
The report recommended that more smoking-cessation interventions be focused on college students. "Because their smoking status seems more changeable than adults, college students may be more receptive to smoking cessation," said Michael Fiore, director of the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention. Progression. "Plus, the relatively confined nature of the college environment might be an excellent setting for implementing both policy and individual interventions."
Fiore added, "Helping students to develop realistic expectations about smoking and to find other ways to cope with negative feelings may be helpful in reducing dependence upon smoking. This is critical since we know that half of those who become daily lifetime smokers will be killed prematurely by a disease directly caused by their smoking."
The study's findings are published in the April 2004 issue of the journal Health Psychology.
Boston University School of Public Health 
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