Baseline stage, severity, and effort effects differentiate stable smokers from maintainers and relapsers.

This cross-sectional study (N = 4,144) compared three longitudinal dynatypes (Maintainers, Relapsers, and Stable Smokers) of smokers on baseline demographics, stage, addiction severity, and transtheoretical model effort effect variables. There were significant small-to-medium-sized differences between the Stable Smokers and the other two groups on stage, severity, and effort effect variables in both treatment and control groups. There were few significant, very small differences on baseline effort variables between Maintainers and Relapsers in the control, but not the treatment group. The ability to identify Stable Smokers at baseline could permit enhanced tailored treatments that could improve population cessation rates.