Introduction: Non-Daily Smoking (NDS), which is increasingly prevalent worldwide, has not yet attracted as much attention as has daily smoking in Asia. The aims of this study were to identify trends in the prevalence of NDS and to compare characteristics by age, gender, and mental health indicators such as depression, suicidality, and alcohol consumption in South Korea.
Methods: We included 33,806 adults (aged ≥19 years) who participated in the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHNES) from 2010 to 2015. The dataset includes self-reported medical history and questionnaires that explore depression, suicidality, and alcohol use, which are known to be highly related to smoking. We divided the respondents into four groups according to smoking status: Never Smoking (NS, N = 20,270); Past Smoking (PS = 6835); Daily Smoking (DS = 5927), who reported smoking every day; and Non-Daily Smoking (NDS = 774), who reported that they sometimes smoke.
Results: Increased NDS prevalence is observed in most age groups in both male and female adults despite the prevalence of total smoking and daily smoking gradually decreasing. Depression and suicidality were significantly more prevalent in the NDS than the NS group (Depression Odds ratio, OR = 1.72, 95% Confidence interval, CI = 1.31-2.26; Suicidality OR = 3.14, 95% CI = 1.40-7.02). NDS is also associated with a higher frequency of binge drinking and alcohol use disorder than NS (OR = 4.17, 95% CI = 3.49-4.99).
Conclusions: This study suggests that more concern is warranted for NDS given the increasing prevalence and characteristics of poor mental health in NDS respondents.
Keywords: non-daily smoking, daily smoking, tobacco control, mental health.