Table 4 Estimated 12-month and lifetime prevalence of multiple cessation attempts among adolescent smokers according to level of cigarette consumption* and period of adolescence
Country, study year†Age/grade rangeDefinition of cessationPrevalence (%) of cessation attempts by cumulative frequency‡
⩾2⩾3⩾4
12-month cessation attempts
Daily use (self-declared current)
Middle to late adolescence
Canada, 199963 67Age 15–17Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration28
Age 15–1923||
Canada, 200165Age 15–17Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration22
Age 15–1923||
Canada, 200264Age 15–17Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration20
Age 15–1919||
Canada, 200066Age 15–17Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration23
Canada, 200362Age 15–17Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration28
Late adolescence
Canada, 199963Age 18–19Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration20
Canada, 200066Age 18–19Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration19
Canada, 200165Age 18–19Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration25
Canada, 200264Age 18–19Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration18
Canada, 200362Age 18–19Number of quit attempts of at least 24 h duration24
Lifetime cessation attempts
Any use (in the past month)
Early to middle adolescence
Canada, 199437Age 10–14Number of quit attempts69§49§
Republic of Palau, 200168Grade 6–8Tried to stop smoking3627
United States, 1989–199074Age 12–13Number of times tried to quit6225
Middle adolescence
United States, 1989–199074Age 14–15Number of times tried to quit5320
Early to late adolescence
Canada, 199437Age 10–19Number of quit attempts63§||40§||
United States, 1989–199074Age 12–18Number of times tried to quit59||22||
Middle to late adolescence
Canada, 199437Age 15–19Number of quit attempts60§37§
Republic of Palau, 200168Grade 9–12Tried to stop smoking4935
Late adolescence
United States, 1989–199074Age 16–18Number of times tried to quit6022

  • *Any use in the past month was defined operationally as “smoked ⩾1 cigarette in the past 30 days”, except in Allen et al74 where it was defined as “smoked in the past 30 days” and in Hansen et al68 where it was defined as: “smoked cigarettes ⩾1 day in the past 30 days”; daily use (self-declared current) was defined operationally as: “daily smoker”.

  • †One additional report70 provided mean (3.7), median (3.0) and range (1–20) of cessation attempts. However, these estimates were confined to smokers who had attempted cessation at least once, thus an estimate among all smoking adolescents could not be derived.

  • ‡Findings for multiple cessation attempts were usually reported on an ordinal rather than on a continuous scale. The cumulative frequency categories reported here were derived by combining multiple ordinal categories. Summary estimates could only be calculated where the responses were scaled similarly across multiple studies.

  • §Estimated among the subgroup of adolescents who had smoked ⩾100 cigarettes in their lifetime.

  • ||Excluded from the calculation of summary estimate because complete stratum-specific estimates were available for this study.