Abstract
Purpose:In this study, we asked smokers about events that induced the craving to smoke and during which smoking a cigarette seemed to be the most appealing and when it was the most difficult to stop, in addition to their Heaviness of Smoking Index (HSI), to understand events that affect smoking behavior.
Methods:We asked 873 adult smokers whether some events (“After waking up,” “After breakfast,” “Commuting to school and other places,” “After lunch,” “During break at work,” “After dinner,” “When relaxing at home,” “After bathing,” “Before bedtime,” and “Others”) induced the craving to smoke. We then asked the respondents about time points at which smoking a cigarette seemed to be the most appealing and when it was the most difficult to stop. The survey was conducted on the Internet. The HSI index was calculated from the response to the face sheet.
Results:The events that induced smoking were “After dinner,” “After waking up,” “When relaxing at home,” “During breaks at work,” “After lunch,” and “After breakfast.” More number of heavy than light smokers responded that the craving to smoke was the highest and it was the hardest to stop smoking after waking up. More number of heavy than light smokers responded that smoking a cigarette was the most appealing and the hardest to stop after waking up. We found that “After waking up” and “Before bedtime” were reported more frequently for the time point at which smoking a cigarette was the hardest to stop than when it was the most appealing; additionally, “After meals” was reported more frequently as the time point at which smoking the cigarette was the most appealing than when it was the hardest to stop, suggesting that smoking at this point was a habit.
Conclusion:Smokers who smoked less than 10 cigarettes a day smoked regardless of the event, but as the number increased, there was a tendency to smoke at specific events, and smokers of 31 or more cigarettes a day smoked all day.

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