Aussie smokers were less likely than Americans or the English to try and quit when COVID-19 hit

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-06-05 04:00

Australia; New Zealand; VIC

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International scientists, including an Australian, surveyed smokers in Australia, Canada, England, and the USA to ask whether they had thought about quitting, cut down, or quit because of the threat of COVID-19. Overall, around half said they'd thought about quitting, but the vast majority never actually followed through, the researchers say. And a slightly higher proportion said they'd smoked more during the pandemic than said they'd smoked less (14.6 per cent vs. 14.2 per  cent). England had the highest proportion of smokers who thought about quitting at 50.9 per cent, while Australia had the lowest at 37.6 per cent. And Aussies were also the least likely to have actually given quitting a go. Aussie smokers' hesitancy to quit, or to even think about quitting, may be related to the low impact of COVID-19 in Australia, the authors suggest.