Does a later age of smoking initiation improve smoking cessation rates and reduce nicotine dependency in Japanese smokers?
Initiating smoking at age 22 or older, rather than 20, is associated with lower nicotine dependency and higher smoking cessation success rates in Japanese smokers.
Aims: Initiating smoking in early adolescence results in challenges with smoking cessation and is associated with high risk of cardiovascular disease. Recently, the initiation of smoking has transitioned from adolescence to young adulthood. However, there are few reports on the impact of initiating smoking at a later age. This study investigated the impact of the age of smoking initiation on nicotine dependency, smoking cessation rates, and cardiovascular risk factors, using a cut-off point of 20 years, within the Japanese population. Methods and results: = 0.020) and a lower successful smoking cessation rate odds ratio: 0.736, 95% confidence interval (0.569, 0.951) than the group with a smoking initiation age of ≥20 years. When smokers were divided into four groups based on the age they started smoking, the FTND score for those who started at 20-21 years was significantly higher than the score for those who started at 22 years or older. Conclusion: In young adulthood, initiating smoking later (beyond 20 years old) was associated with lower nicotine dependency and fewer depressive tendencies, as well as a higher success rate in smoking cessation among Japanese smokers. The results might suggest that raising the legal smoking initiation age from 20 to 22 years old or older could be effective in reducing nicotine dependency in smokers.
Mittal et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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