ArticleAddictive behaviors2015
Does non-smoker identity following quitting predict long-term abstinence? Evidence from a population survey in England.
Article in Addictive behaviors, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- I am what I am: A meta-analysis of the association between substance user identities and substance use-related outcomes.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2021Pooled it
- Positive Psychotherapy for Smoking Cessation Enhanced with Text Messaging: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2026Article
- Non-smoker and smoker identity related to mother-identity among (pre)pregnant women before and after participating in a smoking cessation intervention.Maternal health, neonatology and perinatology · 2025Article
- Article
- Remote clinical trial to test mechanisms of 'practice quitting' treatment: Trial design and methodological report.Contemporary clinical trials · 2025Article
- National Smoking Cessation Services (NSCS) enrollment and their effect on long-term tobacco cessation in Korea: Results from a 1-year prospective follow-up of NSCS participants.Tobacco induced diseases · 2024Article
- 'It's not what you'd term normal smoking': a qualitative exploration of language used to describe heated tobacco product use and associated user identity.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2023Article
- Identified or conflicted: a latent class and regression tree analysis explaining how identity constructs cluster within smokers.BMC psychology · 2022Article
- Article
- Persons living with HIV who do not smoke cigarettes: A comparison of ex-smokers and never smokers.Tobacco use insights · 2021Article
- Changing the Language of How We Measure and Report Smoking Status: Implications for Reducing Stigma, Restoring Dignity, and Improving the Precision of Scientific Communication.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2020Article
- Tobacco Denormalization Indicator in the Prevalence of Positive Smoker Identity and Its Associated Factors.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Associations between vaping and relapse to smoking: preliminary findings from a longitudinal survey in the UK.Harm reduction journal · 2019Observational
- Re-Configuring Identity Postpartum and Sustained Abstinence or Relapse to Tobacco Smoking.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Development and Validation of Positive Smoker Identity Questionnaire (PSmoQi): A New Instrument for Smoking Cessation Correlates.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Article
- Evaluating Within-Person Change in Implicit Measures of Alcohol Associations: Increases in Alcohol Associations Predict Increases in Drinking Risk and Vice Versa.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2018Article
- The unique contribution of e-cigarettes for tobacco harm reduction in supporting smoking relapse prevention.Harm reduction journal · 2018Article
- Adapting, Pilot Testing and Evaluating the Kick.it App to Support Smoking Cessation for Smokers with Severe Mental Illness: A Study Protocol.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
- Progression towards smoking cessation: Qualitative analysis of successful, unsuccessful, and never quitters.Journal of substance use · 2018Article
- A review of implicit and explicit substance self-concept as a predictor of alcohol and tobacco use and misuse.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aims'Categorical self-labels' (e.g. thinking of oneself as a smoker or non-smoker) are important aspects of identity that can have a fundamental influence on behaviour. To explore the role identity aspects relating to smoking can play in smoking cessation and relapse, this study assessed the prospective associations between taking on a non-smoker identity following quitting and long-term abstinence.
methodsA representative sample of 574 ex-smokers in England who quit smoking in the past year was followed-up at three (N=179) and six months (N=163). Post-quit identity relating to smoking ('I still think of myself as a smoker' or 'I think of myself as a non-smoker'), and demographic and smoking-related characteristics were assessed at baseline. Self-reported smoking abstinence was assessed at follow-ups.
resultsNon-smoker identity was reported by 80.3% (95%CI 76.8-83.4) of recent ex-smokers. Younger age (p=0.017) and longer abstinence (p<0.001) were independently associated with a post-quit non-smoker identity. After adjusting for covariates, non-smoker identity (p=0.032) and length of abstinence at baseline (p<0.001) were associated with continued abstinence at three month follow-up, and baseline length of abstinence (p=0.003) predicted continued abstinence at six months.
conclusionsThe majority of people who quit smoking recently consider themselves as non-smokers. Younger people and those who have been abstinent for longer are more likely to take on a non-smoker identity. Ex-smokers who make this mental transition following a quit attempt appear more likely to remain abstinent in the medium term than those who still think of themselves as smokers.
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Registered trials
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