Differences in Smoking Prevalence Between the Adult Tobacco Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

Smoking prevalence is a principal outcome for evaluating tobacco-control efforts, but prevalence estimates in New Hampshire differed between two surveys conducted during 2002. Smoking prevalence was 17.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] 16.3%–19.5%) in the Adult Tobacco Survey (ATS) and 23.2% (95% CI 21.8%–24.5%) in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (absolute percentage point difference = 5.3%; relative percentage difference = 22.8% [5.3%/23.2%]). We examined possible reasons for this observed difference.