Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control
Cancer
Smoking Behaviour of Canadians
Cycle 2, 1996/97 (January 1999, No. 1)
Description of the Survey and Reports
Highlights on the smoking behaviour of Canadians have been developed to
provide descriptive information from the NPHS. Depending on future interest, additional highlight reports will
be developed on other core issues covered by the NPHS, such as alcohol, physical activity, injuries, stress, medications,
depression, preventive health practices, sexual health, social support, health status, and access to services.
The federal and provincial governments can also develop issue supplements for the NPHS (e.g., nutrition; asthma,
1994/95; health services, road safety, 1996/97), which identify additional areas for possible Highlights.
Background
The NPHS is a longitudinal household-based survey conducted every two years by
Statistics Canada. The survey is designed to collect information about health status and health determinants, including
health behaviour, use of health services, and socio-demographic information.
Health Canada is a member of the NPHS Advisory Committee, which also includes
representatives from each provincial health ministry. This committee provides advice and recommendations to Statistics
Canada.
Target Population
The target population of the NPHS consists of household residents in all provinces
and territories, except persons living on Indian reserves, on Canadian Forces bases, or in some remote areas of
Ontario and Quebec. Separate surveys are conducted for the territories, for operational reasons. An institutional
survey component covers long-term residents of hospitals and residential care facilities.
The NPHS Highlights on the smoking behaviour of Canadians are restricted,
for the most part, to the non-institutionalized population aged 15 years and over in the provinces. This represented
almost 23.5 million Canadians in private households in 1996/97. The prevalence of smoking among the very young
(those 12 to 14 in 1996/97) is also reported, but this age group is only included in the "Overview of Results"
report.
Data Collection
Data collection for Cycle 2 began in June 1996 and was completed in August 1997.
The NPHS will collect information every two years from the same panel of respondents selected in 1994/95, for up
to two decades. Extensive information was collected on one selected household member, and limited information is
collected on each household member living with the longitudinal respondent at the time of the survey.
The NPHS originally surveyed a sample of 20,725 households. A minimum of 1,200
households in each province was needed to ensure reliable estimates by sex and age groups. Subject to this restriction,
the base sample sizes for each province were determined by using an allocation that balances the reliability requirements
at the national and regional levels. In 1994/95 and 1996/97, some provinces chose to increase the number surveyed
in their province. Thus the data from each cycle consist of a combination of cross-sectional (one-time-only) and
longitudinal (follow-up) participants.
For these Highlights on smoking behaviour in Canada, the target population
was provincial residents aged 15 and over and included a final sample size for Cycle 2 of 67,133 (12,633 original
panel participants; 54,500 provincial buy-ins from Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta). Longitudinal results (i.e.,
assessment of change between 1994/95 and 1996/97) are based on a sample of 12,628 respondents, representing Canadians
aged 15 and over (provinces only) in 1996/97.
Response rates for both NPHS cycles have been over 85%.
Microdata
Separate public use microdata sets containing the cross-sectional results for
both cycles (1994/95 and 1996/97) of the NPHS are available for purchase from Statistics Canada, or from the provincial
ministries. The NPHS Cycle 2 master file data and the corresponding public-use microdata file were released on
9 November 1998. There will not be a public release of the longitudinal file because of confidentiality concerns.
All analyses are based on cases included in the master "share" file provided
by Statistics Canada to Health Canada. This file includes only respondents who agreed to share their results with
Health Canada. Few respondents refused to share their data. Nevertheless, the sample size for the 1996/97 master
share file was slightly smaller than what is available through Statistic Canada's public use file and may result
in subtle differences in estimates.
Terminology
- Current smoker - was smoking at the time of the interview, and includes
daily smokers and non-daily smokers (also known as occasional smokers). Smoking status was determined
from the response to the question: "At the present time do you smoke cigarettes daily, occasionally or not at all?"
- Former smoker - was not smoking at the time of the interview, however
answered "YES" to the question: "Have you ever smoked cigarettes at all?" Former daily smokers and former
occasional smokers were then determined by their response to the question: "Have you ever smoked cigarettes
daily?". In Cycle 2, time since quitting was not collected.
- Never smoker - was not smoking at the time of the interview and answered
"NO" to the question: "Have you ever smoked cigarettes at all?"
- Non-smokers - are former smokers and never smokers, combined.
- Prevalence of smoking - the proportion of cigarette smokers in the specified
population.
- Amount smoked - the number of cigarettes smoked per day for daily smokers
only.
- Quitters - those individuals who classified themselves as either "daily"
or "occasional" smokers in 1994/95, and then as "former smokers" in 1996/97.
- Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) - also known as second-hand smoke.
Exposure to ETS was determined from the response to the question: "Does anyone in this household smoke regularly
inside the house?"
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