How your zip code could make it harder for non-daily smokers to quit

Non-daily smokers who live near more cigarette retailers are less successful at quitting, according to new research published in Tobacco Control.

The research team, which included Andrew Anesetti-Rothermel, a GIS analyst at the Schroeder Institute® for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at Truth Initiative, investigated the association between the density of cigarette retail outlets in a given ZIP code and the price sensitivity of non-daily smokers and their intention to quit smoking.

Non-daily smokers who have tried to quit smoking and who live in retail-dense neighborhoods are more likely to say that the price of cigarettes impacts their desire to smoke less. But those smokers are less likely to stick to their stated intentions to quit smoking in six months.