According to a study, the smoking prevalence of 20 or more daily cigarettes experienced a significant decline from 1965 to 2007, as well as a decline in the smoking prevalence of 10 or more daily cigarettes, with greater declines in California compared to the rest of the US. Consumption was usually about 20 daily cigarettes during much of the early cigarette smoking history.1✅ JOURNAL REFERENCE
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2011.334 There’s been a major decrease in smoking prevalence since the 1st report on smoking and health by the surgeon general in 1964. California has been the consistent leader in the US by making use of public policies in reducing cigarette smoking throughout this period, and in California, there were faster decreases in smoking prevalence in comparison to rest of the US, along with declines in lung rates of cancer.
In California, the high intensity smoking prevalence of 20 or more daily cigarettes didn’t differ from the rest of the US in 1965; in California, high-intensity smoking prevalence was 23.2% in comparison to 22.9% in the remaining US, and these smokers represented 56% of all smokers. In California, this smoking prevalence was 2.6% or 23% of smokers and 7.2% or 40% of smokers in the rest of the US by 2007.
The population moderate-intensity smoking prevalence of 10 or more daily cigarettes in 1965 was 11.1% in California and 10.5% in the remaining US; the prevalence in California was 3.4% in comparison to 5.4% in the rest of the US in 2007.
In people born between 1920-1929 (excluding California), moderate to high-intensity smoking prevalence was 40.5% in 1965. In successive birth cohorts there was a decline in moderate to high-intensity smoking, and the highest rate of moderate to high-intensity smoking was 9.7% in California and 18.3% in the remaining US for the 1970-1979 birth cohort. In moderate to high-intensity smoking prevalence in all cohorts, there was a marked decline at older ages. By age 35 years, moderate to high-intensity smoking prevalence in the 1970-1979 birth cohort was 4.6% in California and 13.5% in the rest of the US.
The large decrease in the pack-a-day smoking prevalence has as expected been reflected in decreases in lung cancer related deaths.
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