Smoking and passive smoking among adults in Beijing

Objective To understand the status of smoking and passive smoking among adults in Beijing.Methods Totally 22 206 adults aged 18-79 years were randomly selected with stratified multi-stage cluster sampling method.All participants were invited to receive a face-to-face questionnaire interview.Results The smoking rate and current smoking rate among the adults were 33.2% and 29.0%,respectively.The current smoking rate was 54.0% for men and 2.9% for women.The current smoking rate of the adults in rural area was higher than that of in the urban(28.6% vs 25.6%).The main type of tobacco was machine-made cigarette for the adults.On average,one smoker had 14.7 cigarettes per day,and 41.7% of all smokers had at least 20 cigarettes per day.The average age was 18.5 years for smokers having their first cigarette,and 20.4 years for starting to smoke every day.The rate of giving up smoking for the smokers was 15.4%,and more than half of them gave up smoking after the year of 2000.The prevalence of passive smoking in nonsmokers was 43.4%,and 40% of them exposed to second-hand smoke every day.The major exposure places were home and workplace.Conclusion The smoking and passive smoking status among adults in Beijing has improved,but the situation is still in its platform stage.Therefore,more effective tobacco control policies need to be established and implemented.