According to recent research, one cigarette is adequate to lead one to adopt smoking as a daily habit. At least 3 out of 5 people who try a cigarette become daily smokers.
The findings come from 215,000 respondents from Britain, the US, Australia and New Zealand. The rate of conversion from ‘first time smoker’ to ‘daily smoker’ is unexpectedly high – helping to confirm the importance of preventing cigarette experimentation.
One cigarette is enough
Researchers estimated that 60.3% of respondents said they smoked a cigarette and 68.9% of them commenced smoking on a daily basis.
Researchers note that the decline in smoking rates over the past 20 years is probably due to reduced experimentation among adolescents.
The findings were published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
References
- S Elisha LePine, Catherine Peasley-Miklus, Meghan L Farrington, William J Young, Michelle T Bover Manderski, Mary Hrywna, Andrea C Villanti, Ongoing Refinement and Adaptation are Required to Address Participant Deception in Online Nicotine and Tobacco Research Studies, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2023, Pages 170–172.
- Caitlin Wolford-Clevenger, Samantha V Hill, Karen Cropsey, Correlates of Tobacco and Nicotine Use Among Transgender and Gender Diverse People: A Systematic Review Guided by the Minority Stress Model, Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Volume 24, Issue 4, April 2022, Pages 444–452.