Title: Survey on smoking in Canada, 1994-1995

Series title:

Principal investigator(s): Statistics Canada. Special Surveys Division

Producer: Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada. Special Surveys Division

Date of creation: 1995-05-10

Funding agency: Health Canada

Collector:

Distributor: Ottawa, Ont.: Statistics Canada. Data Liberation Initiative

Date of distribution:

Access conditions/restrictions: University of Toronto faculty, students and staff, for academic research and teaching purposes only. See DLI licence.

Summary:

Statistics Canada was approached by Health Canada in February 1994 to do a survey which would monitor smoking patterns of Canadians over a 12-month period. The objective was to get into the field as quickly as possible and be able to measure any changes in smoking resulting from the decrease in taxes on cigarettes which took place in early February in some provinces.

This survey was conducted to fulfil the short-term information needs of Health Canada's Tobacco Monitoring Strategy. The medium- and long-term information needs will be filled by the Youth Smoking Survey and the National Population Health Survey and its supplements.

The first cycle of the Survey on Smoking in Canada was conducted by Statistics Canada between April 20 and June 1, 1994. This was the first of four quarterly surveys on cigarette smoking, and was done with the cooperation and support of Health Canada. The three remaining cycles took place in August and November 1994 and February 1995. The respondents from the first cycle were re-contacted for cycles 2-4. The core set of questions about current smoking behaviour were repeated in each cycle; but each cycle also had a new set of questions focussing on a particular area of interest about smoking.

Health Canada required that data collection begin as soon as possible. To accommodate this, it was decided that the survey would focus on cigarette smoking alone rather than the broader topic of tobacco use. The major objectives of the survey are: (1) to measure prevalence of cigarette smoking and amount smoked, (2) to measure changes in prevalence and changes in amount smoked, (3) to measure the effect of price on prevalence and on amount smoked, and (4) to measure these items in ways that are consistent with past surveys and planned future surveys. The secondary objectives are to gain some insight into attitudes toward cigarette smoking and behaviours related to smoking.

The major groups of interest are the younger and older age groups, since it is expected that most of the changes in smoking patterns between February 1994 and February 1995 will be seen in these groups. Reliable measures of change are required for four age groups (15-19, 20-24, 25-64 and 65+) in each of five geographic regions (Atlantic provinces, Quebec,

Keywords:

Geographic coverage: Canada, regions, provinces

Time period:

Periodicity:

Date(s) of collection: 1994-05 to 1995-02

Universe: The target population for the Survey on Smoking in Canada was all persons 15 years of age and over living in Canada with the following two exceptions:

1. Residents of the Yukon and Northwest Territories; and
2. Full-time residents of institutions.