Definition of "currently smoking" on a health check questionnaire


In the section of a questionnaire about smoking, the options are  
吸ったことがない  
以前吸っていた  
現在、吸っている

Then, under this last option, it says:

> ※現在、吸っているとは「合計100本以上、または6ヶ月以上吸っている方」であり、最近１ヶ月間も吸っている方を指します

To me, this sentence looks like it says

> “I currently smoke” is defined as smoking a total of 100 cigarettes or
> having been smoking for over 6 months, the most recent time of which was
> within the past month.

But I don't get how this definition could work without defining a minimum
number of cigarettes smoked in those "6 months."

In English I think it is too vague to be a working definition. Does this
definition work in Japanese?  
日本語で定義として成り立っているなら、なぜ成り立つか聞きたいです。  
よろしくお願いします。




You understand the Japanese text correctly, and you're right in that there is
certain ambiguity (like, does someone who has been smoking once a month for
the past 10 months really count?). But the sentence works as it is. (If I were
in charge, I might slightly change the wording, though...)

The key observation here is that this health check question is meant for
stratify the questionees according to the risks and help to interpret the
results: the true question is "Are you [your health] under the influence of
smoking?". As such, they exclude those who are barely (sort of) smoking, an
arbitrary and rough criteria of which is less than 100 cigarettes AND less
than 6 months. So if I started smoking 2.5 months ago and this is the 95th
cigarettes I smoke today, I should probably think twice before I check "No".
Same goes for the population who smoke longer than 6 months but the
consumption is (from a commonsense view) very low. You think twice, check the
choice which you feel more suitable, and if you have a chance, tell your
situation to the doctor directly.

Another point is that _smoking_ , when asking about your habits, implies
_smoking regularly_. This sets certain lower bounds implied to the number of
cigarettes consumed when one think of themselves as "smoking for more then 6
months".

Additionally, I feel that there are much less percentage of smokers who smokes
only occasionally than social drinkers are in drinkers (the choices for your
drinking habits usually has 機会飲酒, roughly social drinking). Therefore the
number of edge-cases here is, if I may guess, epidemiologically small.

I think it being written in another language than your native one brought you
unnecessary suspicion. You can be confident in your skill: the question indeed
leaves some space for interpretation, which does not spoil the value of the
question practically.




You understand the Japanese text correctly, and you're right in that there is
certain ambiguity (like, does someone who has been smoking once a month for
the past 10 months really count?). But the sentence works as it is. (If I were
in charge, I might slightly change the wording, though...)

The key observation here is that this health check question is meant for
stratify the questionees according to the risks and help to interpret the
results: the true question is "Are you [your health] under the influence of
smoking?". As such, they exclude those who are barely (sort of) smoking, an
arbitrary and rough criteria of which is less than 100 cigarettes AND less
than 6 months. So if I started smoking 2.5 months ago and this is the 95th
cigarettes I smoke today, I should probably think twice before I check "No".
Same goes for the population who smoke longer than 6 months but the
consumption is (from a commonsense view) very low. You think twice, check the
choice which you feel more suitable, and if you have a chance, tell your
situation to the doctor directly.

Another point is that _smoking_ , when asking about your habits, implies
_smoking regularly_. This sets certain lower bounds implied to the number of
cigarettes consumed when one think of themselves as "smoking for more then 6
months".

Additionally, I feel that there are much less percentage of smokers who smokes
only occasionally than social drinkers are in drinkers (the choices for your
drinking habits usually has 機会飲酒, roughly social drinking). Therefore the
number of edge-cases here is, if I may guess, epidemiologically small.

I think it being written in another language than your native one brought you
unnecessary suspicion. You can be confident in your skill: the question indeed
leaves some space for interpretation, which does not spoil the value of the
question practically.

