Correlates of smoking status in cancer survivors

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the characteristics associated with cancer survivors which indicate continued cigarette smoking at or around the time of cancer diagnosis. Methods: A total of 631 survivors were recruited in four cancer centers in Memphis, TN, between March 2015 and June 2016. To increase the probability of accurate reporting, surveys were conducted anonymously. A total of 112 respondents reported they were current smokers and 202 reported they were former smokers (n = 314), who comprised the sample. Results: We found that the rate of daily e-cigarette use among cancer survivors who smoked was 15.2% versus 3.9% in cancer survivors who no longer smoked. The national rate of adult e-cigarette use is 3.5%. Multivariate models correlated the characteristics of current versus former smokers and revealed that increasing age (aOR = 0.97, p