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Smoking ban decreased cigarette use in USA, but it could not decrease the nicotine dependence among smokers. Nicotine dependence has remained stable among adults and increased among some groups, U.S. researchers reported.

Researcher explained that they found that public health initiatives have been far more successful in averting Americans from taking up smoking than in convincing them to stop smoking.

One of the main factors that have changed dramatically in the epidemiology of tobacco consumption and dependence over the past several decades is gender. Smoking has been far more common among men than among women for most of the past forty years, though recent evidence suggests that the gender gap has confined, and the current study finds increases in smoking among women in several recent generations.

It is also thought that socioeconomic status is another factor in cigarette use. The current study finds that younger women living in poverty had the highest rates of nicotine dependence, compared with older generations, and those not living in poverty. This suggests that despite increases in taxes and smoking costs, those most exposed are still heavily affected.

In other words, while the number of people who smoke cigarettes has declined, the people who quit smoking were more likely occasional smokers, not heavy smokers. Researchers added that regular, heavy cigarette use frequently characterizes nicotine dependence and is the exemplar of use thought to be the most harmful to health and long life, but it has not been addressed in previous estimates of the decline in smoking prevalence.

The recent study found not only that the number of nicotine-addicted Americans has bore steady over the past several decades, but also that the proportion of cigarette smokers who are addicted to nicotine now is greater than in previous generations. Researchers suggested that fewer people are taking up smoking, possible because of anti-cigarette campaigns, leaving the ranks of current smokers filled with the nicotine dependent.

There is only one explanation for the findings, and this explanation is that fewer people are taking up smoking, leaving the position of current smokers filled with the nicotine dependence.