Smokers have become less dependent but also less motivated to stop

Smokers today show fewer signs of dependence than a decade ago but are less inclined to try to stop smoking, according to a study led by researchers at UCL. The study, published in the scientific journal Addiction analaysed data from 41,610 smokers in England. The findings show smokers consume fewer cigarettes per day (an average of 10.9 in 2017 compared with 13.6 in 2008) and fewer of them smoke within an hour of waking up each day. The proportion who do not smoke every day has gone up from 9.1% to 13. This goes against a popularly held view that as smoking prevalence has gone down, the remaining smokers are more dependent. The proportion of smokers who tried to stop smoking in the past year has declined from 37.0% to 29. The research team also found that the proportion smoking roll-your-own cigarettes has increased from 35.3% to 50.7% and the proportion who are trying to cut down how much they smoke has declined from 56.1% to 47.