ArticleAddiction (Abingdon, England)2012
How much unsuccessful quitting activity is going on among adult smokers? Data from the International Tobacco Control Four Country cohort survey.
Article in Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 126 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
126 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of Brief Interventions for Smoking Cessation Performed by Family Doctors.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2024Pooled it
- Changes in smoking patterns after HIV diagnosis or antiretroviral treatment initiation: a global systematic review and meta-analysis.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2020Pooled it
- Interventions to reduce harm from smoking with families in infancy and early childhood: a systematic review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2015Pooled it
- Mind-body practices: an alternative, drug-free treatment for smoking cessation? A systematic review of the literature.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2013Pooled it
- Combining Default Choices and an Encounter Decision Aid to Improve Tobacco Cessation in Primary Care Patients: A Pragmatic, Cluster-Randomized Trial.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Trial
- Appalachian Primary Care Patients' Quit Readiness and Tobacco Treatment Receipt.American journal of preventive medicine · 2025Trial
- Long-term engagement in smoking cessation campaign: A mixed methods randomized trial.PloS one · 2025Trial
- Increasing cessation motivation and treatment engagement among smokers in pain: A pilot randomized controlled trial.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Communicating risk differences between electronic and combusted cigarettes: the role of the FDA-mandated addiction warning and a nicotine fact sheet.Tobacco control · 2020Trial
- A Pilot Clinical Trial of Smoking Cessation Services Implemented in the Workplace for Service Industry Employees.American journal of health promotion : AJHP · 2019Trial
- Providing Antismoking Socialization to Children After Quitting Smoking: Does It Help Parents Stay Quit?American journal of health promotion : AJHP · 2018Trial
- Moderators of smoking cessation outcomes in a randomized-controlled trial of varenicline versus placebo.Psychopharmacology · 2017Trial
- A mechanistic test of nicotine replacement therapy sampling for smoking cessation induction.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2015Trial
- Effect of varenicline on smoking cessation through smoking reduction: a randomized clinical trial.JAMA · 2015Trial
- Effects of timing of initiation and planning on smoking cessation outcomes: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.BMC public health · 2013Trial
- Association between ENDS device and liquid characteristics and cigarette smoking, quitting and smoking reduction behaviors among U.S. adults who frequently use ENDS.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Smartphone movement data can reliably predict smoking lapses and cravings to enable timely smoking cessation support.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Understanding the role of cessation fatigue in smoking relapse: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- Feasibility and efficacy of a real-time smoking intervention using wearable technology.PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- Cigarette Smoking Relapse Among People Who Switched to E-cigarettes or Other Tobacco Products.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Article
66 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimsTo document accurately the amount of quitting, length of quit attempts and prevalence of plans and serious thought about quitting among smokers.
designWe used longitudinal data from 7 waves of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Four Country Survey (ITC-4). We considered point-prevalence data and cumulative prevalence over the 7 years of the study. We also derived annual estimates of quit activity from reports of quit attempts starting only within more recent time-frames, to control for biased recall.
settingAustralia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
participantsA total of 21,613 smokers recruited across seven waves. MEASUREMENTS: Reported life-time quit attempts, annual quit attempts, length of attempts, time since last attempt started, frequency of aborted attempts, plans to quit and serious thought about quitting.
findingsAround 40.1% (95% CI: 39.6-40.6) of smokers report attempts to quit in a given year and report an average of 2.1 attempts. Based on free recall, this translates to an average annual quit attempt rate of 0.82 attempts per smoker. Estimates derived only from the preceding month to adjust for recall bias indicate an annual rate of approximately one attempt per smoker. There is a high prevalence of quit-related activity, with more than a third of smokers reporting thoughts or actions related to quitting in a given month. More than half the surveyed smokers eventually succeeded in quitting for at least 1 month, and a majority of these for over 6 months.
conclusionsSmokers think a great deal about stopping and make many unsuccessful quit attempts. Many have been able to last for extended periods and yet they still relapsed. More attention needs to be focused on translating quit-related activity into long-term abstinence.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.