Assessing the Impact of Nationwide Smoking Cessation Interventions among Employed, Middle-Aged Japanese Men, 2005-2010

BACKGROUND: A variety of tobacco control interventions have become available in Japan over the past decade, however, the magnitude to which they have impacted on smoking rates may have varied by socioeconomic status such as job content, particularly for middle-aged men who were formerly long-term smokers. We conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the differences between smoking cessation strategies among a national sample of middle-aged Japanese employed men between 2005 and 2010. METHODS: Data was extracted from a previous longitudinal survey of middle-aged and elderly people that had been conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. In 2005, 16,738 Japanese men aged 50–59 years were recruited and sent a questionnaire in each year of the study. We analyzed data for individuals who reported being current smokers at baseline. Cox’s discrete time proportional hazard regression analysis was used to examine potential associations between smoking cessation and socioeconomic factors. RESULTS: Of the 6187 employed, male smokers who participated in 2005, 31% subsequently quit smoking during the 5-year follow-up period. Those working in manufacturing, transportation, or security were less likely to have quit smoking than those working in management. Having no marital partner, never having been married, or those experiencing psychological distress were significantly less likely to have quit smoking during this time. CONCLUSIONS: Although almost one-third of middle-aged, male smokers quit their habit between 2005 and 2010; the uptake of this national strategy appears to have been far from uniform across Japanese society. Socioeconomic factors such as occupation, marital status and psychological distress were negatively correlated with quitting, suggesting that these groups should be more aggressively targeted in further interventions.