Abstract
Summary
Introduction: In 2005, Takasaki University of Health and Welfare conducted a questionnaire survey of students with the aim of imple-menting a total ban on smoking on campus as of 2006. The questionnaire has been conducted every year since then. In addition to questions about their smoking status, smoking habits, and awareness of tobacco-related diseases, etc., the questionnaire asked students about the smoking status of their families and others around them, which gives us a picture of the smoking status of students’ parents. We analyzed these data over time and sought to obtain new ideas for smoking cessation support.
Methods: For this study, the parents of each year’s students were selected by questionnaire and divided into four groups according to their smoking status: father-only smoking, mother-only smoking, both parents smoking, and both parents non-smoking, and the smok-ing rate was determined by the percentage of the overall participants in each group. We then analyzed the annual changes in smoking rate in each group from 2005 to 2023. In analyzing the data, we referred to nationwide statistics on men and women in their 50s, who are considered to be of the same generation as the students’ parents.
Result: Trends in the rate of smoking of students’ fathers and mothers were almost in line with those of men and women in their 50s nationwide. Smoking tended to decline in the father-only smoking group and both parents smoking group; however, it tended to in-crease in the mother-only smoking group. If one of the parents was a smoker, that person’s partner was significantly more likely to smoke than if their partner was a non-smoker. In addition, the survey revealed that smokers tended to be less likely to ask their partners to quit smoking.
Consideration: The high percentage of mothers who want their partners to quit smoking is presumably one of the reasons for the de-cline in smoking among fathers. On the other hand, we speculated that the relative tolerance of such smoking by their partners was one of the reasons why the smoking rate of mothers did not decrease. In addition, given that so many want their partners to quit smoking, we proposed smoking cessation support for couples who smoked.
Conclusion: As a measure to reduce the smoking rate of mothers, which is on the rise, we proposed the establishment of “couple smok-ing cessation support
