Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS)

Detailed information for February to June 2001 (Cycle 1)

The primary objective of the survey is to track changes in smoking status, especially for populations most at risk, such as the 15 to 24 year olds. The survey allows Health Canada to estimate smoking prevalence by province-sex-age groups on a semi-annual basis.

Data release - January 21, 2002

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Documentation

Description

The Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) has been conducted for Health Canada since 1999, and provides data on tobacco use and related issues. The primary objective of the survey is to track changes in smoking status, especially for populations most at risk, such as the 15 to 24 year olds. The survey allows Health Canada to estimate smoking prevalence by province-sex-age groups on a semi-annual basis.

The Cycle 1 (February to June) data of each year are released separately. The Cycle 2 (July to December) data are released within the annual summary.

Reference period: Cycle 1: February to June, Cycle 2: July to December, Annual Summary: February to December

Collection period: Cycle 1 : February - June; Cycle 2 : July - December

Subjects

• Health
• Lifestyle and social conditions

Data sources and methodology

Target population

All persons 15 years of age and over living in Canada with the following two exceptions:

1) residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and
2) full-time residents of institutions.

Because the survey was conducted using a sample of telephone numbers, households (and thus persons living in households) that do not have telephones were excluded from the sample population. People without telephones account for less than 3% of the target population. However, the survey estimates have been weighted to include persons without telephones.

Instrument design

The questionnaire design for this survey borrows heavily from the 1994 Survey on Smoking in Canada. Some questions have been added for consistency with international surveys which use the concept of smoking behaviour "in the last 30 days". In most cases questions added to CTUMS come from other Statistics Canada surveys. Interviewers are consulted about changes to the instrument.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2001-02-01 to 2001-06-30

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

Data were collected using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). A front-end module contains a set of standard response codes for dealing with all possible call outcomes, as well as the associated scripts to be read by the interviewers. A standard approach set up for introducing the agency, the name and purpose of the survey, the survey sponsors, how the survey results will be used, and the duration of the interview was used.

The CATI application ensured that only valid question responses were entered and that all the correct flows were followed. Edits were built into the application to check the consistency of responses, identify and correct outliers, and to control who gets asked specific questions. This meant that the data were already quite "clean" at the end of the collection process.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

It should be noted that the "Public Use" microdata files differ in a number of important respects from the survey "master" files held by Statistics Canada. These differences are the result of actions taken to protect the anonymity of individual survey respondents. Confidentiality is ensured by suppressing and collapsing variables that may be used to identify individuals.

Documentation

• Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, Cycle 1, February to June 2001 - Microdata User Guide
  • Format: Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey, Cycle 1, February to June 2001 - Microdata User Guide - ARCHIVED - PDF, 131.53[ARCHIVED - PDF, 131.53 kb]