Reasons for smoking among English-speaking adults in Leicester - a pilot study

Cigarette smoke contains around 7000 chemicals that are harmful to health and cause premature death. Most smokers acknowledge the harm they are doing to them yet continue to smoke. This pilot study was designed to understand the impact of cigarette smoking, the addictive effect of nicotine, and also to hypothesize a recommendation for smoking cessation.

Methods: This study recruited English speaking adult participants who were either current, occasional, and ex-smokers from NHS Stop Smoking clinics in Leicester, United Kingdom, using a self-completed questionnaire.

Results: Out of 32 participants, white British and Asian were the top two ethnicities with the majority of males as respondents. Stress, boredom, nervousness, and ‘just like it’, were the main reasons quoted for cigarette smoking. Irritation & mood swings were the top reasons for craving. The visual stimuli and ‘smell of smoking’ were reported as the top two strong cues. Majority of the participants reported having several health problems mainly due to cigarette smoking such as respiratory cough, feel like tightening of lungs, asthma, high blood pressure, difficulty in losing weight, excess fat accumulation near the waist, poor appetite, fatigue, sleep disturbances, darkened teeth as well as an inability to differentiate between taste.

Conclusion: Our study suggested that cigarette smoking may be more like a habit than an addiction, which unable to relieve stress or boredom but keeps smokers hooked to the habit.