Cigarette smoking behaviour

Requirements

The cigarette smoking behaviour questionnaire module must:

• specify that it is about tobacco cigarette smoking, that is, it includes the smoking of manufactured (tailor-made) and hand rolled (roll-your-own) tobacco cigarettes;
• in self-administered questionnaires, incorporate a statement to the effect that cigar, pipe, cigarillo smoking is not included;
• in interviewer administered surveys, the interviewer should instruct the respondent to the effect that cigar, pipe, cigarillo smoking is not included.

Recommendation

It has been suggested that many respondents may be defensive about answering the question and unaware of why the question is asked (ie primarily for health statistics). The standard therefore recommends inclusion of a note explaining the reasons for collecting this information in survey questionnaire guide notes and instructions to interviewers. For example, "this information is required for health monitoring and planning purposes".

Example

The questionnaire module below is an example that meets the requirements documented in this statistical standard. Other questionnaire modules may vary in format but should conform to the requirements contained in this statistical standard.

Help notes

Count tailor-made and roll-your-owns but only if they are tobacco cigarettes; do NOT count herb or marijuana cigarettes.