Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) 2006

Summary of Annual Results for 2006

Overview

According to the latest results from the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS), for data collected between February and December 2006, slightly fewer than 5 million Canadians, representing 19% of the population aged 15 years and older, were current smokers¹. Results indicate that, between 1985 and 2006, smoking rates have fallen by almost one-half, from 35% to 19%.

Fourteen percent (14%) of Canadians aged 15 years and older reported smoking daily and they smoked on average 15.5 cigarettes per day. Four percent (4%) of Canadians aged 15 years and older reported smoking occasionally. Approximately 20% of males aged 15 years and older were current smokers in 2006, only slightly higher than the proportion of females at 17%. Over the past 12 months, the difference between the male and female rate narrowed from 6% in 2005 to 3% in 2006.

Youth Aged 15-19

There was a significant decrease in the smoking rate among youth aged 15-19 years over the past 12 months with 15% of youth (about 320,000 teens) reporting smoking in 2006, down from 18% for the same period one year ago. Nine percent (9%) of youth reported smoking daily in 2006, down from 11% reported in 2005. Six percent (6%) reported smoking occasionally. Occasional smoking accounted for 42% of reported smoking among youth. Among female youth there was a year-over-year difference as the rate of those who reported smoking dropped to 14%, down from 18% a year ago. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of smoking among male (16%) and female (14%) youth.

Youth daily smokers reported consuming an average of 12.3 cigarettes per day. Teen males (13.3) consumed a daily average of 2.3 cigarettes more than their female (10.9) counterparts.

Young Adults 20-24

The prevalence of smoking among young adults aged 20-24 years was reported at 27% (about 612,000 young adults) in 2006 compared to 26% reported in 2005². Daily and occasional smoking among young adults was 18% and 9% in 2006, this contrasts the 19% daily and 7% occasional as reported in 2005². There was a greater proportion of current smoking among males aged 20-24 (30%) compared to females (24%).

Daily smokers aged 20-24 years reported consuming an average of 12.9 cigarettes per day in 2006, compared to 13.3 in 2005². Young adult male daily smokers reported consuming on average 14.2 cigarettes per day while female daily smokers reported consuming an average of 11.0 cigarettes per day.

Reported Consumption of Cigarettes and Type

Canadian daily smokers reported smoking an average of 15.5 cigarettes per day, down slightly from 15.7 cigarettes reported during the same period last year². Men continued to smoke more cigarettes than women - 16.9 cigarettes per day for males, 13.8 cigarettes for females. More than half of all current smokers (60%) reported consuming some type of cigarette with a "light" or "mild" descriptor, compared to 40% who smoked a cigarette with either a "regular" descriptor or no descriptor at all. A greater proportion of occasional smokers (69%) reported smoking cigarettes with a "light" or "mild" descriptor compared to daily smokers (57%).

Smoking in the Provinces

The CTUMS results showed that the provinces were all within ±5% of the National average smoking rate (19%). The rate of smoking ranged from a low of 16% in British Columbia to a high of 24% in Saskatchewan. The province of Ontario reported the highest percentage of never smokers 60% while Newfoundland and Labrador reported the lowest 46%.

There was some variation in reported daily consumption as the province with the highest (Nova Scotia - 16.4) and lowest (Manitoba - 14.0) average number of reported cigarettes consumed daily differed by 2.4 cigarettes. When measuring change from the same period last year, New Brunswick respondents reported the largest drop in the average number of cigarettes consumed daily from 16.9 in 2005 to 15.3 in 2006.

Smoking Restrictions

In CTUMS 2006, respondents were asked to give their opinion on smoking in restaurants bars and taverns, and smoking in the workplace. More than two-thirds (69%) of respondents stated that smoking should not be allowed in any section of a restaurant and nearly half (49%) felt that it should not be allowed in a bar or tavern. Forty percent (40%) of respondents felt that smoking should not be allowed in any area of the workplace, whether indoor or outdoor while almost half (46%) felt that smoking should be allowed only in designated outdoor smoking areas of the workplace.

In 2006, CTUMS asked respondents about restrictions on smoking in their workplace.  Ninety four percent (94%) of those who worked at a job or business in the last 12 months reported some kind of workplace smoking restriction, unchanged from the same period one year ago. Of this group, 44% identified that smoking was restricted completely, which is 10 percentage points lower than the figure reported one year ago (54%). This change could be attributed to the year-over-year increase in the number of respondents who reported that smoking was allowed in designated areas of the workplace.  In 2006, 43% of respondents reported that smoking was allowed in designated areas of the workplace, which is up from 34% in 2005. Six percent (6%) of respondents reported that smoking was not restricted at all in their workplace, unchanged from the same period last year.

Smoking in the Home

Fifteen percent (15%) of Canadian households reported at least one person who smoked inside the home every day or almost every day. Among the remaining homes where someone did not smoke every day or almost every day, 14% of homes still allowed smoking inside. Forty-two percent (42%) of households, which did allow smoking in the home, or had someone regularly smoking inside the home, placed some restriction on it.  It was also reported that 9% of children under the age of 12 (about 354,888 children) were regularly exposed to second-hand smoke at home

Cigarette Access/Social Sources

Current Smokers were asked where they usually obtained their cigarettes. Among those aged 15 years and older, the most popular places to obtain cigarettes were at a small grocery/corner store (56%), at a gasoline station (15%) or at a supermarket (11%).

Current smokers were also asked if they have made any attempts to purchase cigarettes at a lower cost during the past 6 months. The 2006 annual results revealed that 38% of current smokers purchased a discount brand cigarette during the past 6 months, 17% bought cigarettes from a First Nation's Reserve, 10% bought cigarettes from outside the province, and 2% identified purchasing cigarettes that may have been smuggled.

Among Canadian youth over the age of 15 years who identified themselves as current smokers but were not yet the legal age to purchase tobacco products in their respective provinces, 54% said they obtained their cigarettes primarily from a social source (such as a friend or relative - either by taking, buying, or being given them) while the remaining 46% said they purchased them on their own from a retail source, including more than one-third (37%) who identified that they purchased them from a small grocery/corner store.

Exposure to Second-Hand Smoke

CTUMS asked respondents about their exposure to second-hand smoke in places other than their own home. Reported exposure to second-hand smoke in the past month was as follows: 51% at an entrance to a building, 29% inside someone else's home, 31% on an outdoor patio of a restaurant or bar, 25% inside a car or other vehicle, and 23% at the workplace. Overall, 37% of respondents reported being exposed to second-hand smoke at least once a week and another 12% reported it occurring every day.

Use of Other Products (Herbal and Water-Pipe)

CTUMS 2006 asked respondents about their use of herbal cigarettes. Herbal cigarettes are tobacco free cigarettes. Based on the annual results, 4% of Canadians aged 15 years and older said they have ever tried smoking herbal cigarettes, and less than 1% reported smoking herbal cigarettes in the past 30 days.

In addition to herbal cigarettes, respondents were asked if they have ever tried smoking a water-pipe and their beliefs about the risks and benefits associated with smoking a water-pipe compared to cigarettes. A water-pipe (also known as a hookah, sheesha, narg-eelay, hubble-bubble, or gouza) is a tall container with water at the bottom that the air bubbles through and it has a long hose coming out of it that people smoke through. Four percent (4%) of Canadians aged 15 years and older reported having ever tried a water-pipe among which 68% were males. One-quarter (25%) of Canadians who reported having ever tried a water-pipe were young adults aged 20-24 and 13% were youth aged 15-19.  When respondents who reported ever use of a water-pipe were asked about their beliefs regarding the risks and benefits associated with smoking a water-pipe compared to cigarettes, 29% of respondents thought that smoking tobacco in a water-pipe was less harmful, 34% thought it reduced the level of tar you inhale, and 24% thought that smoking tobacco in a water-pipe reduced the risk to health compared to smoking cigarettes.

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 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. The Annual CTUMS collected data from over 21,900 respondents from February to December 2006. The overall margin of error for the smoking rate for Canada is +/− 1.0%. We expect the true smoking prevalence for this population to be between 17.6% and 19.6%, 19 times out of 20.

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 www.gosmokefree.ca/ctums.

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.

Endnotes

1. Differences are not statistically significant between 2005 and 2006 but are between 1999 and 2006.
2. Differences are not statistically significant.