Number of hard-core smokers remains steady

NEW YORK, June 25 (UPI) -- Despite recent declines in U.S. cigarette use, nicotine dependence has remained steady among adults and increased among some groups, U.S. researchers say.

Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York say public health initiatives have been far more successful in preventing Americans from taking up smoking than in persuading hard-core smokers to stop.

In other words, while the number of people who smoke cigarettes has declined, the people who quit smoking were more likely occasional smokers, not heavy smokers.

"Regular, heavy cigarette use frequently characterizes nicotine dependence and is the pattern of use thought to be the most detrimental to health and longevity, but it has not been addressed in previous estimates of the decline in smoking prevalence," principal investigator Renee Goodwin said in a statement.

The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found not only that the number of nicotine-addicted Americans has held steady over the past several decades, but also that the proportion of cigarette smokers who are addicted to nicotine now is greater than in previous generations.

A possible explanation for the findings are that fewer people are taking up smoking, leaving the ranks of current smokers filled with the nicotine dependent, Goodwin said.