Who are the adolescents who stop smoking?

In most industrialised countries, the number of adolescent smokers has incr eased dramatically during the past several years. Encouraging smokers to qu it constitutes one of several methods to control smoking. To improve our un derstanding of quitting during adolescence and help professionals address t he specific attributes and needs of those who quit, we compared the charact eristics of youth who report having quit (former smokers, FS) with those of both "regular" smokers (RS) and nonsmokers (NS). As part of the Swiss Mult icentre Adolescent Survey on Health, anonymous self-administered questionna ires were distributed to a national representative sample of 9268 15- to 20 -year-old teenagers. A multiple logistic regression analysis showed FS to d iffer from NS for the following variables: suicide attempt (odds ratio, OR 2.10); sleeping difficulties (OR 1.67); delinquency (1.61); assault (OR 1.5 5); painting of graffiti (OR 1.52); shoplifting (OR 1.51); dissatisfaction with academic choices (OR 1.46); suffering from back problems (OR 1.31); be longing to a sports club (OR 0.78); receiving good marks at school (OR 0.75 ); and having a positive future expectation with regard to health (OR 0.74) , FS differed from RS for the following variables: practising sport (OR 2.1 8); scouting (OR:1.97); shoplifting (OR 0.63); tardiness (OR 0.63 and havin g many friends (OR 0.59). Conclusion Former smokers resemble regular smokers as far as mental health and general health are concerned, whereas they behave similarly to nonsmoke rs in the field of social and sports activities.