Tobacco smoking in Poland in the years from 2003 to 2014. Multi‑centre National Population Health Examination Survey (WOBASZ).

INTRODUCTION    The reduction of tobacco smoking is a challenging problem of public health. OBJECTIVES    The main purpose of this work was to evaluate the prevalence and tobacco use patterns in the adult population of Poles and its changes in a period between year 2003 and 2014. Furthermore, changes in the smoking addiction, the declared reasons for smoking as well as readiness and motivation to stop smoking has been assessed.  PATIENTS AND METHODS    Based on data from the Polish studies - WOBASZ and WOBASZ II, the analysis covered a population of 14576 persons from the 1st study (6906 men and 7670 women) and 5696 persons from the 2nd study (2578 men and 3118 women), aged 20 - 74. RESULTS    According to the WOBASZ II study, in Poland 30% of men and 21% of women smoked,  the shares being 9 and 4 % lower for men and women respectively in comparison with the WOBASZ (p<0.001). The average number of cigarettes smoked daily per smoker significantly decreased in the period of observation among men (from 17.9 to 15.8 cigarettes/day) and women (from 13.7 to 12.1). The percentage of never smoking men rose from 29.8% to 36.1% (p<0.0001). The proportion of never smoking women no changed. However, the percentage of those expressing unwillingness to quit tobacco smoking nearly doubled in WOBASZ II vs WOBASZ. CONCLUSIONS    Although we found smoking rates in Poland have declined over the past decade, smoking remains prevalent among men and women. Therefore it is necessary to optimize the tobacco control in Poland including fiscal policy, counseling and tobacco addiction treatment, promotional and educational activities, with a special emphasis on the female population.