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Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey 2004 (CTUMS)
Summary of Annual Results for 2004
The Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) is part of the national mission to monitor and evaluate tobacco use and related knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. CTUMS is a surveillance tool that was established by Health Canada (HC) with input from its partners in 1999 and is conducted on its behalf by Statistics Canada. This allows HC to report on smoking prevalence and related issues (e.g. smoking in public places, exposure to tobacco smoke among children, youth and adults) nationally and by province on a semi-annual and annual basis. The survey's primary objective is to track changes in smoking status and amount smoked, especially for 15-24-year-olds, who are most at risk for taking up smoking. CTUMS provides up-to-date, reliable, comparable, and continuous data on tobacco use. It is part of a larger effort to ensure access to data, analysis and information which is vital to the effective development, implementation and evaluation of tobacco control strategies, policies and programs. It should be noted that all differences reported here are statistically significant except where indicated.
Overview
Based on annual results there continues to be a downward trend in smoking prevalence among Canadians aged 15 years and older1.
According to the latest results from the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS), for data collected between February and December 2004, slightly more than 5 million people, representing 20% of the population aged 15 years and older, were current smokers. Fifteen percent reported smoking daily and they smoked on average 15.2 cigarettes per day while 5% reported smoking occasionally. Approximately 22% of the male population aged 15 years and older were current smokers in 2004, slightly higher than the proportion of females at 17%.
Youth Aged 15-19 Years
Smoking among youth aged 15-19 years of age was 18% in 2004 (about 386,000 teens) with the daily smokers reportedly consuming an average of 11.6 cigarettes per day. This was lower than the overall prevalence rate for Canadians 15 years and older (20%)2. The prevalence rate for current smokers remained unchanged compared to 2003 and was composed of 11% of youth reporting daily smoking and 7% occasional smoking. For teen girls, the 2004 prevalence rate was 18%. This was the lowest annual smoking rate for teen girls since monitoring of smoking began in 1965.
Young Adults Aged 20-24 Years
The prevalence of smoking among young adults 20-24 years of age was 28% in 2004 (about 606,500 young adults), which is the lowest rate on record since Health Canada first reported prevalence. The reduction in prevalence among this group is very encouraging although they still experience one of the highest smoking rates of any other age group. A greater proportion of males aged 20-24 smoked (30%) compared to females (25%) and among daily smokers, males smoked an average of 2.2 more cigarettes daily (13.8) than their female (11.6) counterparts.
Number of Cigarettes Smoked and Type
Canadians continue to report that they smoked fewer cigarettes on a daily basis than in previous years. Canadian daily smokers 15 years of age and older experienced a year-over-year decrease in the average number of cigarettes smoked per day from 15.9 cigarettes in 2003 to 15.2 in 2004. The 2004 estimate is 5.4 cigarettes per day less than the 1985 average of 20.6 cigarettes per day. As is usual, men continued to smoke more cigarettes than women - 16.4 cigarettes per day for males as compared to 13.8 cigarettes for females. The majority of Canadian smokers (59%) reported consuming cigarettes with a "light" or "mild" type of descriptor, compared to 41% who reportedly smoked cigarettes with a "regular" type descriptor.
Smoking In The Provinces
Provincial results are encouraging in that the difference between the smoking rates in the provinces has shrunk to the lowest level ever with all provinces within 4-5% of the National average smoking rate.
British Columbia continues to lead the way as the province with the lowest reported prevalence rate for current smokers 15 years and older (15%). The highest rate reported was in New Brunswick (24%)3. New Brunswick also reported the highest average number of cigarettes consumed per day by daily smokers (16.7) with males, on average, smoking 18.5 cigarettes per day and females 14.5. Saskatchewan daily smokers consumed the lowest number of cigarettes per day on average (13.9).
Opinions On Smoking in Public Places (Restaurants, bars/taverns)
When Canadians aged 15 years and older were asked to give their opinions on smoking in restaurants more than half (57%) stated that smoking should not be allowed in any section of a restaurant and more than a third (37%) stated that smoking should not be allowed in any section of a bar or tavern. This represents an increase from 2001, when questions about smoking in public places were first asked, where only 42% believed that smoking should not be allowed in any section of a restaurant and 26% in a bar or tavern.
Smoking In The Workplace
Ninety one percent of those who worked in the last 12 months reported some kind of smoking restriction in the workplace. Of this total, 71% identified that their workplace was completely smoke free (compared to 40% of workers in 1994), while only 9% reported no restriction at all. The changing environment has seen eight provinces introduce legislation to prohibit and/or limit smoking in the workplace. New Brunswick (October 1, 2004) and Manitoba (October 1, 2004) have already passed legislation that banned smoking in the workplace. The impact on these 2 provinces was not measured here because the changes occurred too near the conclusion of this annual cycle. When respondents were asked about restrictions on smoking in the workplace Nova Scotia saw the largest change in complete restriction from 48% in 2001 to 72% in 2004 while Quebec experienced the smallest change from 64% in 2001 to 67%2 in 2004.
Smoking At Home
Seventeen percent of Canadian households reported at least one person who smoked inside the home everyday or almost everyday. Of those households without someone regularly smoking inside the home, 83% did not allow any smoking inside their home. Twelve percent of children 0-11 years of age (456,879 children) were regularly exposed to second hand smoke at home in 2004, a reduction from 26% (1.1 million children) in 1999.
Quitting Smoking
In 2004 CTUMS asked smokers and former smokers who had quit or tried to quit in the past two years what methods they used to help them quit (respondents could identify one or more method used in their quit attempts). Of those who attempted to quit (successful or not) more than half (56%) reported reducing the number of cigarettes they smoked as a strategy to quit. One-third (34%) reported using the nicotine patch including 9% of those 15-19 years of age and 45% of those 45 years and older. The next most common method (24%) used to quit was making a deal with a friend or family member to quit together.
Of those who answered they had not used any of the cessation methods asked about in the survey, 70% reported quitting on their own with no special preparation or help.
Marijuana Use
Since July 2003 CTUMS has asked a number of questions regarding marijuana use among respondents. In 2004, 35% of respondents reported ever using marijuana at least once in their life, including 41% of males and 30% females.
Respondents who have tried marijuana more than once were asked about their frequency of use. Approximately one-quarter (26%) of those who reported using marijuana more than once did so during the 12 months preceding the survey (about 9% of Canadians 15 years and older). Of this group, 38% reported using marijuana less than once a month, 23% 1 to 3 times per month, 12% once a week, 14% greater than once a week with the remaining 14% reporting marijuana use everyday. In relation to tobacco smoking, among current smokers, 63% reported ever use of marijuana, cannabis or hashish while only 21% of never smokers had ever used marijuana.
Reference Information
CTUMS was developed to provide Health Canada and its partners with timely, reliable, and continual data on tobacco use and related issues. The Annual CTUMS collected data from 20,275 respondents from February to December 2004. The overall margin of error for the smoking rate for Canada is +/- 1.1%. We expect the true smoking prevalence for this population to be between 18.5% and 20.7%, 19 times out of 20. For provincial data on smoking prevalence, the margin of error is greater and ranges from a low of +/- 2.0% to a high of +/- 2.4%.
Note that when comparing results across different data releases of CTUMS, Health Canada advises that it is more accurate and reliable to compare results from one wave with those of other waves and to compare annual results with other annual results.
For more information about the survey and/or its results, please write the Tobacco Control Programme, Office of Research, Surveillance and Evaluation, Health Canada, 123 Slater Street, Address Locator 3507C, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0K9, or send an email request to TCP-PLT-questions@hc-sc.gc.ca, or visit Health Canada's Tobacco Control Programme website.
For information on the public-use microdata file, contact Statistics Canada's Client Services (1-800-461-9050; 613-951-3321; fax: 613-951-4527; ssd@statcan.ca), Special Surveys Division.
1 Differences are not statistically significant between 2003 and 2004 but are between 1999 and 2004.
2 Differences are not statistically significant.
3 The difference between New Brunswick and the national prevalence rate is not statistically significant. Differences between New Brunswick and all the provinces except British Columbia are not statistically significant.
