Researchers carried out a longitudinal study on 573 elderly smokers from North Carolina which lasted approximately 10 years. From their study they have found that 100 people were catergorised as "quitters" and 473 were "non-quitters". The majority of those catergorised under "quitters" were people who quit within the first 3 years of the study and stayed quitters till death. The researchers found, that there were many factors effecting the individual who did infact quit smoking, such as lack of transportation which reduced the access to purchasing ciggarettes. Furthermore the onset of demensia is a great risk factor, alongside finanacial constraints or living in a home where smoking is not permittted. Smoking is addictive and under the will of the individual to give up!