Factors that differentiate smokers from exsmokers in a Florida metropolitan area.

Since many communities have limited resources to devote to public health programs, and since smoking is a proved health hazard, it is important to know which factors are associated with people who successfully quit smoking, as well as to identify those subpopulations at greatest risk of continuing to smoke. A large sample survey of households in a metropolitan Florida county revealed that those who had quit smoking for at least a year tended to be married, more educated, early retirees, middle income, light or heavy (but not moderate) smokers, or older than 64 years. Nonwhite men, as a group, were found to have a high smoking rate and a low cessation rate. Other high-risk categories were persons 20--49 who were either not married or whose household incomes were less than $10,000 annually. The authors recommend that smoking cessation programs focusing on cost effectiveness gear their efforts toward the types of persons found to be more successful at quitting. Programs based on cost-benefit analysis, on the other hand, should target their efforts on the high-risk groups in the population.