Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, 2003: Cycle 1, Household File

The Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) was conducted by Statistics Canada fromFebruary to June 2003 with the cooperation and support of Health Canada.StatisticsCanada has conducted smoking surveys on an ad hoc basis on behalf of HealthCanada since the 1960s. These surveys have been done as supplements to theCanadian Labour Force Survey and as random digit dialing telephone surveys.In February 1994, a change in legislation was passed which allowed a reductionin cigarette taxes. Since there was no survey data from immediately beforethis legislative change, it was difficult for Health Canada or other interestedanalysts to measure exactly the impact of the change. As Health Canada wants to be able to monitor the consequences of legislativechanges and anti-smoking policies on smoking behaviour, the Canadian TobaccoUse Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) was designed to provide Health Canada and itspartners/stakeholders with continual and reliable data on tobacco use andrelated issues. Since 1999, two CTUMS files have been released every year:a file with data collected from February to June and a file with the Julyto December data. Additionally, there is also a yearly summary. The presentfile covers the period from February to June 2003.The primary objective ofthe survey is to provide a continuous supply of smoking prevalence data againstwhich changes in prevalence can be monitored. This objective differs fromthat of the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) which collects smokingdata from a longitudinal sample to measure which individuals are changingtheir smoking behaviour, the possible factors which contribute to change,and the possible risk factors related to starting smoking and smoking duration.Because the NPHS collects data every two years and releases the data abouta year after completing the collection cycle, it does not meet Health Canadasneed for continuous coverage in time, rapid delivery of data, or sufficientdetail of the most at-risk populations, namely 15 to 24 year olds. The Canadian Tobacco UseMonitoring Survey allows Health Canada to look at smoking prevalence by province-sex-agegroup, for age groups 15 to 19, 20 to 24, 25 to 34, 35 to 44 and 45 and over,on a semiannual and annual basis. Data will continue to be collected on anon-going basis depending on availability of funds.