The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Evaluate the tobacco addiction habits, before and after the contest “Quit and Win” within people sign up in the Talcahuano-Chile Health Service.

Methods: Descriptive and retrospective study. Phone inquires done between 12 and 16 February 2001 and answered by 198 individuals

Results: 40% men, 60% women; 57% between 20 and 39 years old; 52% married and 41% single, 53% smoked less than 10 sticks per day; the starting age of 41% is between 11 and 15 years old and in 74,24% of the cases, only 25% of the persons had not had a previous attempt of quitting. Only 9,6% sign for winning the price, most of them sign for worried by tobacco health risks or because they wanted to quit it by personal interest or by worried relatives (36%, 25% and 23% respectively); 51% presented a low nicotine dependency level and 14,65%, a high nicotine dependency level.After 9 months, only 14% had not smoked again and 60% smoked less sticks per day.The main reasons for smoking again were socials and stress and anxiety (31% and 26%).Along the individuals that had stop smoking, 60% smoked less than 10 sticks and 25% more than 2 a pack per day before the contest.61 % of the former smokers had a low nicotine dependency level and 43% had 1 or 2 previous attempts of quitting smoking.