New Zealand Tobacco Survey - Health and Disability Intelligence

Health & Disability Intelligence
New Zealand Tobacco Survey

Information for survey participants

The New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey (NZTUS) is a national tobacco use survey and is repeated two out of every three years. Data are collected over a three-month period, with the New Zealand Health Survey supplying core tobacco use data for the ‘third’ year. The first NZTUS was in 2006.

The mode of data collection is computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). The NZTUS collects information about the New Zealand population aged 15 to 64 years, living in permanent private dwellings. Data are aggregated across waves as required to achieve adequate statistical power for population sub-groups.

The objectives of the NZTUS are to:

Provide a measure for the prevalence of smoking annually.
Collect valid and reliable measures of tobacco use including consumption, initiation, addiction, quitting, relapse and exposure to second-hand smoke.
Collect comprehensive measures of, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about tobacco smoking and control.
Provide reliable measures for populations of interest: NZ Māori, Pacific people and Asians
Monitor changes in tobacco use, quitting behaviour, and attitudes and beliefs about tobacco over time.

Specific groups of particular interest in the New Zealand population are included in the survey sampling strategy so that inequalities can be monitored. The NZTUS aims to produce reasonably precise estimates nationally by age group (15-19, 20-24, 25-44 and 45-64 years), gender (male, female) and ethnic group (Māori, Pacific peoples, Asian and European/Other, which includes NZ European and all other ethnic groups).

The sample size for 2006 was around 5,700 adults. The total sample consists of a main sample and screened sample. The purpose of the screened sample is to boost the sample sizes for key age and ethnic groups (15-24 years, Māori, Pacific and Asian). The main sample includes approximately 4,400 people and the screened sample approximately 900 people. This sample design is the same for other NZTUS'.

The NZTUS is divided into an adult component which is administered to adults aged 20 to 64 years and a youth component which is administered to youth aged 15 to 19 years.

The NZTUS includes the potential for a longitudinal dimension, most likely active follow-up after approximately 12 to 24 months to enable the monitoring of trends in smoking dynamics (i.e. initiation, quitting and relapsing rates).

The New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey 2006
The first NZTUS 2006 report was launched on 28 June 2007. Download a copy of the full report.

A copy of the NZTUS 2006 Questionnaire is available to download in Word and PDF format below:

HDI’s other publications on Tobacco are:
2009: New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey 2008: Quitting results
Monitoring Tobacco Use in NZ: Technical report on defining smoking status and estimates of smoking prevalence
Tobacco Trends 2006: Monitoring tobacco use in New Zealand
Tobacco Facts 2005
2001: Inhaling Inequality: Tobacco’s contribution to health inequality in New Zealand (2001)
2005: Seeing Through the Smoke: Tobacco monitoring in New Zealand (2005)

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Page last updated: 6 November 2008