| Trigger | Time since quit attempt | Significance (linear) | |||
| Less than 3 months | 3 to 6 months | 6 to 9 months | 9 to 12 months | ||
| Advice from a doctor/health professional | 5.2 | 4.7 | 6.8 | 5.8 | 0.383 |
| TV advert for a nicotine replacement product | 1.8 | 1.9 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 0.676 |
| Government TV/radio/press advert | 2.6 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 1.9 | 0.359 |
| Hearing about a new stop smoking treatment | 1.8 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.001** |
| A decision that smoking was too expensive | 13.7 | 14.0 | 12.9 | 9.8 | 0.012* |
| Being faced with smoking restrictions | 4.4 | 5.4 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 0.015* |
| I knew someone else who was stopping | 3.4 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 0.288 |
| Seeing a health warning on a cigarette packet | 2.1 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 0.252 |
| Being contacted by my local NHS Stop Smoking Services | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.839 |
| Health problems I had at the time | 19.4 | 16.9 | 17.0 | 18.9 | 0.840 |
| A concern about future health problems | 14.7 | 28.1 | 30.8 | 28.4 | 0.472 |
| Any health reason† | 46.5 | 45.3 | 49.1 | 47.8 | 0.386 |
| Pressure from family to stop | 2.6 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 4.6 | 0.017* |
| Pregnancy | 2.6 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 5.1 | <0.001*** |
| Worried for children | 1.8 | 2.2 | 3.1 | 1.3 | 0.402 |
| Knew someone who was ill or had died (from smoking) | 2.1 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.350 |
| Just decided to quit | 3.9 | 4.6 | 5.0 | 4.4 | 0.735 |
| Health reasons, general | 0.8 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.883 |
| Not stated/don’t know | 8.0 | 8.7 | 8.1 | 11.6 | 0.027* |
*p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001.
†Composite health variable combining the triggers of current and future health concern, and health reasons (unspecified as current or future).