The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Until recently, few was known in Brazil about how many smokers wanted to stop and which factors could influence them to make such decision.

Objective: Analyse habits, attitudes and believes of smokers in four major cities in Brazil, and compare the results with data from 17 European countries.

Methods: 800 smokers, aging 14 to 65 years old, were individually interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. They were recruited by intentional sample according to pre-established quotas divided according to social class, gender, occupation and age. The statistical analysis was performed by Pynney and Associates.

Results: The majority (80%) of smokers interviewed wanted to stop and had low to moderate degree of dependence. We found that, the bigger the smoker's motivation to stop, the higher the number of quit attempts and the probability of having received medical advice. Only 21% of the sample was counseled by their doctors to stop smoking. The most important factor that smokers said would influence their future efforts to stop was “concern about exposing children, family or friends to tobacco smoke”. Brazilian smokers also asked for smoking cessation centers and medications freely available. Conclusion: Brazil, when compared to European countries, seems to have a population with one of the highest degrees of consciousness on the anti-tobacco fight.