The transformation in smoking habits is significant, the key to harm reduction is information

By: Trademagazin Date: 2023. 11. 29. 10:38

Although it is still high, compared to the situation two years ago, the proportion of Hungarian smokers who consume traditional cigarettes has decreased by 14 percent in Hungary – it was said at the press event at which Századvég Konjunktúrakutató Zrt.’s research focusing on the familiarity and prevalence of tobacco products was presented. For 70 percent of respondents who consume nicotine products, traditional cigarettes are the primary choice, which is 14 percent lower than in 2021 (81%). At the same time, the heating category more than doubled (from 7 to 16%), while the proportion of nicotine users did not change significantly. “We can witness a real transformation,” said Dr. Péter Pillók, director of the social science research group at Századvég.

Among Hungarian smokers, the consumption of traditional cigarettes fell by 14 percent in two years, according to a recent representative survey by Századvég Konjunktúracutató Zrt.
The research also highlighted that according to more than 60 percent of Hungarian smokers, it would be important to provide more extensive information about alternatives to nicotine consumption, such as heated products, nicotine pads and e-cigarettes.
Most people are aware that they are less harmful to health than traditional cigarettes, but overall they have little information about them.

The survey states that 63 percent of Hungarian smokers consider it important to receive more information about alternatives, and in fact, 29 percent of cigarette users consider themselves to be underinformed. “They are the ones who typically know that tobacco heating products exist and think that they are less harmful to health than traditional cigarettes, but apart from that they do not have in-depth information about them,” the researcher pointed out, according to the interviewed cigarette consumers 40 percent are among the more informed: they not only know more about heated tobacco products, but it is also more typical of them that they also use this alternative in addition to traditional cigarettes.