Table 1.
Demographic characteristics, smoking-related measures and illegal activity by country
| England (n=152) | USA (n=151) | Canada (n=156) | p value | ||
| Demographics | Age (mean (SD)) | 49.42 (13.85) | 46.75 (16.06) | 41.45 (14.74) | <0.001**** |
| Gender=male (%) | 74 (50.3) | 66 (42.6) | 80 (53.3) | 0.148† | |
| Race (%) | <0.001†*** | ||||
| White | 133 (90.5) | 108 (69.7) | 130 (86.7) | ||
| Non-white | 13 (8.8) | 47 (30.3) | 20 (13.3) | ||
| Not answered | 1 (0.7) | 0 (0.0) | 0 (0.0) | ||
| Education (%) | <0.001†*** | ||||
| Low | 17 (11.6) | 65 (41.9) | 40 (26.7) | ||
| Moderate | 73 (49.7) | 55 (35.5) | 62 (41.3) | ||
| High | 54 (36.7) | 35 (22.6) | 47 (31.3) | ||
| Not answered | 3 (2.0) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (0.7) | ||
| Income (%) | <0.001†*** | ||||
| Low | 23 (15.6) | 46 (29.7) | 41 (27.3) | ||
| Moderate | 67 (45.6) | 42 (27.1) | 41 (27.3) | ||
| High | 49 (33.3) | 67 (43.2) | 65 (43.3) | ||
| Not answered | 8 (5.4) | 0 (0.0) | 3 (2.0) | ||
| Tobacco daily use (typical day during the last 30 days) | Cigarettes per day (mean (SD)) | 8.19 (8.47) | 8.32 (11.04) | 6.75 (8.31) | 0.269* |
| E-cigarette puffs per day (mean (SD)) | 50.57 (175.36) | 52.22 (109.70) | 45.83 (127.74) | 0.918* | |
| Other tobacco/nicotine product use (typical day during the last 30 days) | Snus (USA/Canada)/inhalator (England) (%) | 16 (10.7) | 10 (6.3) | 9 (6.0) | 0.260† |
| Dip (eg, chewing tobacco (%)) | 12 (8.0) | 10 (6.3) | 9 (6.0) | 0.777† | |
| Heated tobacco products (%) | 17 (11.3) | 14 (8.9) | 9 (6.0) | 0.270† | |
| Nicotine pouch (%) | 9 (6.0) | 13 (8.2) | 7 (4.6) | 0.444† | |
| Nicotine lozenge (%) | 10 (6.7) | 9 (5.7) | 8 (5.3) | 0.881† | |
| Nicotine gum (%) | 10 (6.7) | 13 (8.2) | 12 (7.9) | 0.904† | |
| Illegal activity | Previous illicit purchase (%) | 0.005†** | |||
| 0 times | 112 (74.7) | 112 (70.9) | 83 (55.0) | ||
| 1–2 times | 17 (11.3) | 17 (10.8) | 20 (13.3) | ||
| 3–5 times | 7 (4.7) | 6 (3.8) | 19 (12.6) | ||
| 6–10 times | 4 (2.7) | 4 (2.5) | 6 (4.0) | ||
| More than 10 times | 10 (6.7) | 19 (12.0) | 23 (15.2) | ||
| Previous illicit tobacco/nicotine product purchase (%)‡ | 0.080† | ||||
| 0 times | 16 (42.1) | 24 (52.2) | 23 (33.8) | ||
| 1–2 times | 5 (13.2) | 8 (17.4) | 22 (32.4) | ||
| 3–5 times | 8 (21.1) | 7 (15.2) | 13 (19.1) | ||
| 6–10 times | 4 (10.5) | 0 (0.0) | 1 (1.5) | ||
| More than 10 times | 5 (13.2) | 7 (15.2) | 9 (13.2) |
Due to incomplete data between surveys, demographic variables are reported for n=151 and 149, from Canada and the USA, respectively.
*p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.
*Indicates an ANOVA.
†Indicates Fisher’s exact test.
‡Only 38 tobacco users in England, 46 tobacco users in the USA and 68 tobacco users in Canada reported previously purchasing products from an illicit source and were included in the analysis of this question.
ANOVA, analysis of variance.