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Originally Posted by Mattyk72
I'm not denying the number sounds high... but what qualifies as a lifetime smoker? I'm thinking it's probably have you ever been a smoker in your lifetime as you said.
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Here's your answer, straight from the study:
Quote:
Measures
All WMH surveys used the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview, Version 3.0 (Composite International Diagnostic Interview [CIDI] 3.0), a fully structured diagnostic interview for psychiatric conditions [5,6]. Within this assessment, participants were asked if they had ever used (a) alcohol, (b) tobacco (cigarettes, cigars, or pipes), (c) cannabis (marijuana, hashish), and (d) cocaine. Those who had used these drugs were asked about the AOO of use of each drug class, except in New Zealand, Japan, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain, where age of first tobacco smoking was not assessed.
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So their stat is a "have you ever" stat, it's not a "do you currently" stat. I'm not sure how meaningful a "have you ever" stat is. A good portion of American respondents would have lived through the 60s and 70s, which as we know, was a period in American culture where we saw a rampant substance abuse spike. Further, just about everyone of adult age in the 1950s smoked.
The Cancer Society's stat would be much more telling to compare across nations, since it's a "do you currently" number. I don't care how many people USED to use drugs, I care how many do today.