Smoking Habits and Smoking Cessation in Young Adults

Most teenage smokers are still smoking when they become adults confirming that stopping of smoking at young age is difficult although majority of young smokers want to quit. Young smokers experience many relapses partly due to the lack of appropriate and available cessation services. The discomfort experienced during cessation attempts is likely to be negatively associated with cessation success. Quitting of smoking is by the far most important procedure in preventing COPD progression. In Finland, 18-35% of young adults smoke, the variability being associated at least with socioeconomic background, education and geographical area. Our recent studies on male military draftees have shown that smoking is much more frequent in Northern than Southern Finland. However young men want to quit and accept new smoking restrictions. Very few studies are available on quitting attempts or counselling, pharmacotherapy and/or their combinations in young adults who want to quit.

Inclusion criteria

• healthy daily smokers
• a daily smoker has smoked at least 1cig/day every day during last month and has smoked at least 100 cig ever
• a nonsmoker has smoked less than 50 cig ever,and has not smoked at all during last month
• motivated to quit smoking and ready to 12 months follow-up
• minor allergy or mild asthma without regular medication is allowed

Exclusion criteria

• any chronic disease with daily medication
• known allergy to study medications(varenicline, nicotine patch,nicotine gum)
• any substance and/or alcohol abuse
• drop-outs are counted as current smokers