Pre-Service Smoking and First-Year Attrition

This briefing examines the relationship between pre-Service smoking behavior and first-year attrition. We report four main findings: 1) Recruits who reported that they smoked before enlisting had significantly higher RTC- and 12-month attrition rates than those who did not. 2) Attrition differences between pre-Service smokers and nonsmokers did not disappear after boot camp, which indicates that the RTC ban on smoking was not the primary factor contributing to higher attrition rates for recruits who smoked before enlisting. 3) Attrition differences by pre-Service smoking behavior were comparable to or greater than differences in attrition by tier category and by waiver status. 4) There was no interaction effect between educational tier group and pre-Service smoking. However, higher pre-Service smoking rates for Tier II/III recruits increased their average attrition relative to Tier I recruits. Based on these findings we recommended that the following questions might be addressed in future research: What is the true link between attrition and pre- and post-enlistment smoking behavior? Do attrition differences by pre-Service smoking behavior vary by season? Why is the smoking rate for the Navy sample twice that of the national average?