Objective  To describe the prevalence of smoking and smoking cessation among adult residents in Hubei province and to provide a reference for implementing tobacco control measures.

  Methods  A face-to-face questionnaire survey was carried out at 10 national disease surveillance points to collect information on smoking behaviors among 6 000 residents aged 18 years and above using stratified multistage random cluster sampling in Hubei province between August 2013 and June 2014. Prevalence of smoking and smoking cessation among the residents of different groups were estimated with weighting method based on demographic data of Hubei province.

  Results  With complex weighting, the prevalence rate of smoking, current smoking, and current daily smoking were 32.7% (95% confidence intervl 95% CI: 27.4% – 38.0%), 27.6% (95% CI: 22.3% – 32.9%), and 24.7% (95% CI: 19.5% – 29.9%), respectively. Significant gender and age differences were observed in the prevalence of smoking , current smoking, and current daily smoking among the residents (P<0.05 for all). Based on the results of complex weighting, there were 39.2% (95% CI: 32.2% – 46.3%) of current smokers intending to quit smoking, 15.6% (95% CI: 12.6% – 18.7%) of current smokers conducting smoking cessation, but only 10.3% (95% CI: 8.4% – 12.2%) of smokers quitting smoking successfully. Among the smokers, the rate of smoking cessation and successful smoking cessation significantly differed by gender and age (both P < 0.05); the rate of smoking cessation intention differed significantly by age and education level (P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  The prevalence of smoking was high among adult residents but the smoking cessation consciousness was low among smokers in Hubei province. The implementation of tobacco control measures should be promoted specifically among the residents with different characteristics.