The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: The Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) was developed to provide Health Canada and its partners with timely, reliable, and continuous data on tobacco use and related issues. The survey's primary objective is to track changes in smoking status and amount smoked, especially for 15-24-year-olds, who are most at risk for taking up smoking.

Methods: The Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) is an ongoing random digit dialing telephone survey of over 20,000 Canadians 15 years and older. Further, to allow provincial comparisons of approximately equal reliability, the overall sample size for the survey is divided equally across all 10 Canadian provinces. It has a modular structure with a core set of questions and a variable set of questions depending upon federal and provincial policy and programmatic needs. Full year precision for respondents 15 years and older is better than 2%.

Results: CTUMS is the longest running continuous tobacco use survey in Canada. CTUMS is able to provide information in rapid response to emerging issues such as fire risk behaviours (response to Cigarette Ignition Propensity regulations), exposure to environmental tobacco smoke outside the home (response to smoke-free public places legislation); nicotine replacement therapy as a harm reduction strategy; and tobacco purchase patterns (in response to increased sales on First Nation reserves).