SS 13.30-15.00 Special sessions

QUIT AND WIN' 96: CHARACTERISTIC SMOKING HABITS IN ARGENTINA

• AUTHORS: G Alcala 1, C Arballo 2, G Casas 3, M Clement 4 , R Fidel 5, J C Gimenez 6, L Perego 7, P Pilone 8, M Tavella 9, F Torregiani 10, F Verra 11, M Zosi 7.

• INSTITUTIONS: PROPIA (Program of Prevention of Infarct in Argentina), Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Comision de Investigaciones Cientificas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Ministerio de Salud de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Address: Calles 60 y 120. 3er. Piso. (1900) La Plata. Argentina. 1 City: San Juan, province of San Juan. 2 Campana, prov. of Buenos Aires. 3 Necochea, prov. of Buenos Aires. 4 Mendoza, prov. of Mendoza. 5 Mar del Plata, prov. of Buenos Aires. 6 Tandil, prov. of Buenos Aires. 7,9 La Plata, prov. of Buenos Aires. 8 Balcarce, prov. of Buenos Aires. 10 Rosario, prov. of Santa Fe. 11 Florencio Varela, prov. of Buenos Aires.

The sample - 2,949 > 18-year-old individuals (1,626 men, 1,323 women) from different areas of Argentina - was obtained through a self-administered survey published in the mass media, according to the Quit and Win 1996 smoking cessation campaign methodology.

Through the descriptive analysis of the sample by sex, it was observed that women smoke an average number of 18.31 ± 9.96 cigarettes/day, while men smoke 22.55 ± 11.42 cigarettes/day on average, a highly significant mean difference between the two sex groups (p = 0.0001). The daily cigarette consumption by sex and age group was also studied.

The average age was 39.97 ± 14.3 years old in men; 40.89 ± 13.05 years old in women.

21% of the cases studied reported they had never tried to stop smoking, 52% had tried once or twice, and 27% had tried three or more times.

Analysing the multiple correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked and such independent variables as smoking years, age and sex, we observed a significant influence of the years of smoking and age of smokers on the number of cigarettes smoked.

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