“Youth Smokers Should Attempt Quitting at Least Once, Even If They Fail”

Research Results by Professor Heo Wonbin and Oh Youngsam's Team at Pukyong National University

Among smoking adolescents, the group that has attempted to quit smoking at least once showed significantly lower levels of nicotine dependence compared to the group that has never tried to quit.

This is the result of a study conducted by a joint research team consisting of Heo Wonbin and Oh Youngsam, professors in the Department of Social Welfare at the National Pukyong National University, and Jung Hyejin, a professor in the Department of Public Administration at Pusan National University, targeting 349 adolescents aged 18 or younger with smoking experience.

Inspired by a 2019 study by the California Department of Public Health Tobacco Control Program in the United States, which found that smokers who do not attempt to quit smoking by age 26 are likely to remain lifelong smokers, the research team conducted an empirical study on Korean adolescents.

Survey data collected through questionnaires showed that the average age of respondents was about 16 years old, and the average smoking duration was 2.6 years. The research team divided them into groups that had attempted to quit smoking and those that had not.

The results showed that 69% of the group that never tried to quit smoking were male adolescents, significantly more than the group that had attempted to quit. Out-of-school adolescents were more prevalent in the group that had tried to quit at least once. The research team speculated that the higher number of out-of-school adolescents in the quit-attempt group was due to economic factors or the influence of smoking cessation programs at youth centers.

In particular, the level of nicotine dependence was about 29% higher in the group that never attempted to quit compared to the group that did, showing a statistically significant difference.

The research team stated, “The results indicate that if adolescents do not attempt to quit smoking even once, their nicotine dependence increases,” and suggested, “For adolescents to succeed in long-term smoking cessation, they should attempt to quit as soon as possible, even if they fail, to practice quitting and build smoking cessation stamina.”

They added, “We expect that these research findings will help in designing and developing smoking cessation programs that consider smoking-related factors and the characteristics of each group.”

Professors Heo Wonbin, Oh Youngsam, and Jung Hyejin.

The paper containing these research results, titled ‘Examining Predictors of Nicotine Dependence in Korean Adolescents: Comparing Ever Quitters and Never Quitters,’ was published in the international academic journal JOURNAL OF PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS.

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