NJ is more concerned with quitting snoring than with quitting smoking

This may be a function of fewer people smoking, especially in New Jersey where only about 10% of the population still smokes, but a recent study says people in the Garden State search more for tips to stop snoring than for quitting smoking.

Hard to believe, isn’t it? Probably because more people snore in New Jersey than smoke. But both those habits come in behind losing weight as far as lifestyle changes go.

A nicotine pouch company did the research; they analyzed nationwide and regional Google searches for keywords related to making positive changes and habits, including phrases like ‘quit smoking timeline’ and ‘how to prevent snoring.'

It specifically focused on the months of November, December, January and February over the past couple of years, to determine the main problems New Jerseyans identify in their lives when the New Year presents a chance for a fresh start.

Here are the lifestyle changes New Jerseyans searched the most, with the number of monthly searches:

According to the Truth Initiative,

In 2020, 10.8% of adults in New Jersey smoked cigarettes, compared to the national average of 15.5%. New Jersey ranked 7th among all states for its low smoking rate.

In 2019, 3.8% of high school students in New Jersey smoked cigarettes, compared to the national average of 6%. However, 27.6% of high school students used vapes.

New Jersey received $854.2 million in revenue from tobacco settlement payments and taxes in fiscal year 2021, but only allocated $7.8 million to tobacco prevention programs, which is far below the recommended level by the CDC,

But searching for info on losing weight is wise for New Jerseyans. According to the state department of health, the percentage of adults in New Jersey who are either overweight or outright obese is 60.7%, which is lower than the national average of 67.6%.

However, the obesity rate among New Jersey adults has increased from 12.3% in 1995 to 25.6% in 2020.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

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