Baseline characteristics of tobacco-smoking patients, stratified by whether they had participated in at least one of the three follow-up surveys (responder) or not (non-responder)
| Responder | Non-responder | Total sample | |
| Subjects n | 851 | 1086 | 1937 |
| Age years (mean±sd) | 50.9±14.9 | 42.2±15.6 | 46.1±15.9 |
| Sex | |||
| Female | 59.3 (505) | 46.7 (507) | 52.3 (1012) |
| Male | 40.7 (346) | 52.9 (575) | 47.6 (921) |
| Level of education# | |||
| High school equiv. | 22.1 (188) | 22.2 (241) | 22.2 (429) |
| Adv. techn. college equiv. | 12.9 (110) | 15.0 (163) | 14.1 (273) |
| Secondary school equiv. | 27.1 (231) | 30.4 (330) | 29.0 (561) |
| Junior high school equiv. | 36.1 (307) | 27.7 (300) | 31.3 (607) |
| No qualification | 1.8 (15) | 4.6 (50) | 3.4 (65) |
| Cigarettes/day (mean±sd) | 14.7±9.9 | 13.8±9.6 | 13.8±9.3 |
| Time spent with urges to smoke [25]¶ (mean± sd) | 3.1±1.5 | 2.8±1.5 | 2.9±1.5 |
| Strength of urges to smoke [25]¶ (mean± sd) | 2.1±1.0 | 2.0±0.9 | 2.0±0.9 |
| Motivation to stop smoking [35] (mean±sd)+ | 3.4±1.8 | 3.2±1.8 | 3.3±1.8 |
Data are presented as percentage (n), unless stated otherwise. Differences when calculating the total percentage can be explained by missing data on the respective variable.
#German equivalents to education levels listed in table from highest to lowest: high school equivalent (“Allgemeine Hochschulreife”), advanced technical college equivalent (“Fachhochschulreife”), secondary school equivalent (“Realschulabschluss”), junior high school equivalent (“Hauptschulabschluss”) or no qualification.
¶Both items of the Strength of Urges to Smoke Scale (SUTS) with values ranging from 0=lowest to 6=highest urges.
+Items of the Motivation to Stop Smoking Scale ranging from 1=“I don't want to stop smoking” to 7=“I really want to stop and intend to in the next month”.