The Surgeon General's office publishes smoking-cessation reports every few years. Here are a few excerpts from the 2020 report:
- Nationally representative data indicate that about three in five U.S. Adults who ever smoked have quit successfully.
- 68% of current smokers stated they wanted to quit.
- In the past year, about 56% made a serious attempt to quit; however, only about 7% reported they had succeeded.
- Despite progress over the past 30 years, the reach and use of smoking cessation interventions remain low, with less than one-third of smokers using any proven cessation treatments (counseling and/or medication) from 2000 to 2015.
- Despite evidence demonstrating that using smoking cessation pharmacotherapy with behavioral support is more effective than quitting without these treatments, most smokers who had recently quit reported that they did not quit using either. Some researchers believe it is because of a lack of insurance coverage and other barriers that explains why many smokers have little choice but to quit without formal treatment.
- Proponents of encouraging smokers to quit without treatment, often called quitting “cold turkey,” point to data indicating that most smokers who quit successfully do so without medications or any type of formal assistance, as well as to population surveys suggesting that cold-turkey quitters do as well or better than those who use over-the-counter NRTs.
