Do smokers want to quit?

In any year, about 40 per cent of smokers will have tried to stop smoking in the previous 12 months, and about the same proportion will intend to stop in the next three months. These figures do not indicate what proportion of smokers would rather not smoke. In 1993, 601 Victorian smokers were asked ‘If you could quit painlessly would you quit smoking or would you continue to smoke?’. The study found that 75 per cent of smokers said they would give up under those circumstances, and 13 per cent gave some other indication of interest in giving up. Only 12 per cent were not interested in stopping at present. The results suggest that most smokers are receptive to the idea of giving up, although they may be inhibited from taking action by the perceived difficulty of the task. Only a small proportion of smokers reject cessation messages outright.