Cigarette Smoking
There are currently about 1 billion cigarette smokers worldwide. Despite legal regulation against the sale of cigarettes to persons under the age of 18 years, smoking among adolescents is nonetheless highly prevalent. Despite significant public health mea
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Michael J. Zvolensky · Kirsten Johnson · Andrew R. Yartz · Ellen Leen-Feldner
Abstract: There are currently about 1 billion cigarette smokers worldwide. Despite legal regulation against the sale of cigarettes to persons under the age of 18 years, smoking among adolescents is nonetheless highly prevalent. Despite significant public health measures focused on reducing adolescent smoking, rates have not significantly declined. These prevalence findings are alarming, as smoking is a leading preventable risk factor for medical illnesses such as heart disease, a variety of pulmonary diseases (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) as well as many types of cancer. Thus, there is a pressing need to understand better manage cigarette smoking and related forms of tobacco use. With this background, the purpose of the present chapter is to provide an overview of the prevalence, detection, current theoretical models, and treatment options for cigarette smoking and nicotine dependence.
11.1 Overview The need for public health awareness and evidence-based clinical care for cigarette smoking, the most common form of tobacco use, remains a major health-care priority in the USA and beyond. Indeed, smoking remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries despite systematic efforts to prevent and control the use of tobacco (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2007). There are currently about 1 billion cigarette smokers worldwide (Wald & Hackshaw, 1996), out of which approximately 45.3 million live in the USA (CDC). Approximately, 27.6% of men and 22.1% of women in the USA are current smokers (CDC, 1999), and just under 82% of these people are daily smokers. Smoking is prevalent especially among those with 9–11 years of education and those living below the poverty level. About 5% of the US population have smoked cigars last month (CDC), and rates of smokeless tobacco use are only slightly lower (CDC, 1998). Despite legal regulation against the sale of cigarettes to persons under the age of 18 years, smoking among adolescents is nonetheless highly prevalent, with approximately 22% of 12th graders, 14% of 10th graders, and 7% of 8th graders in the USA reporting smoking in the last month (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2007). Moreover, despite significant public health measures focused on reducing adolescent smoking (e.g., Pechmann & Reibling, 2006), rates have not significantly declined. Thus, aside from the existing population of adult smokers, a new generation of youths within the USA is being exposed to the health risks of smoking. Smoking is a leading preventable risk factor for medical illnesses, such as heart disease, a variety of pulmonary diseases (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and many types of cancer (CDC, 1994, 2002). As one illustrative example, smoking is responsible for almost 31% of all cancer-related deaths (American Cancer Society [ACS], 2006). In addition, it is increasingly becoming recognized that smoking contributes to certain forms of J. Thomas, M. H
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