Intention to Quit among Smokers in Kazakhstan: Data from 2014 Global Adult Tobacco Survey

Abstract

Kazakhstan is one of the countries with higher-than-average smoking prevalence and tobacco-related mortality. Intention to quit is a key step toward smoking cessation, yet has not been studied in Kazakhstan. This study explored prevalence and correlates of intention to quit among smokers in Kazakhstan. We drew data from the nationally representative survey, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), conducted during 2014 in Kazakhstan. Our sample consisted of 649 smokers aged ≥15 years. We examined prevalence of intention to quit by demographics, knowledge of tobacco-related diseases, nicotine dependence, attempt to quit in the past 12 months, household smoking restrictions, and awareness of antismoking messages. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to test the significance of these correlates. Prevalence of intention to quit was around 75.9% among smokers. Older age (p < 0.001), knowledge of tobacco-related diseases (p < 0.01), moderate nicotine dependence (p < 0.001), attempt to quit within the past 12 months (p < 0.001), and having household smoking restrictions (p < 0.001) were all significant correlates. We suggest investing in efforts to promote cessation activities for smokers of all ages, to disseminate comprehensive information on tobacco-related diseases, and to uphold and strengthen policies on smoking bans.

Factors Affecting the Intention to Quit among Women Smokers in Turkey

“…The probability of intention to quit tobacco use of women who have tried to quit tobacco use in the last year was more than that of those who have not. Consistent with our results, there are also similar studies in the literature (Feng et al, 2010;Park, 2014;Wang and Mati, 2019). This can be considered as evidence that an attempt to quit smoking is a preliminary step in smoking cessation practice.…”

“…Whether there is any constraint on tobacco use at home can influence individuals' tobacco use. Similar literature studies have found that restrictions on smoking at home are associated with the intention to quit smoking (Myung et al, 2012;Owusu et al, 2017;Wang and Mati, 2019). Regarding restrictions on tobacco use, studies have reported that smokeless homes are associated with more attempts to quit smoking and with lower tobacco use and prevalence (Pizacani et al, 2004;Fong et al, 2006).…”

“…This result shows similarity with studies demonstrating that awareness of anti-smoking messages is related to the intention to quit smoking. (Caixeta et al, 2013;Wang and Mati, 2019). In addition, an association between exposure to anti-smoking messages in various places such as media, restaurant, public transportation, workplace, shop/store and the intention to quit tobacco use can be evaluated in parallel with the results of the study (Surani et al, 2012;Owusu et al, 2017).…”

Smoking Cessation Intention and Its Association with Advice to Quit from Significant Others and Medical Professionals

“…The remaining 49.0% of the sample declared having an intention to quit smoking without a specific timeline, which is not equivalent to having an intention to quit, according to the stages of change in the transtheoretical model [ 2 ]. Nevertheless, any interpretation of smoking cessation intention rates must account for the differences in definitions between studies, for example: just want to quit smoking [ 3 ]; all of the cases, including intention to quit within the next month, the next 12 months, and will quit but not within the next 12 months [ 7 ]; separately considering the intention to quit in the next 30 days, or later but not within the next 30 days [ 12 ].…”

“…Several studies have shown that intention to quit smoking is a precursor to subsequent quitting attempts or smoking cessation. In fact, intention has been shown to account for 12% of variance in quitting success rates [ 5 ], while a strong desire to quit has been associated with a greater likelihood of quitting [ 6 ]; moreover, both those who quit and those who relapsed reported a significantly higher baseline intention to quit than persistent smokers did, and smokers’ baseline intention to quit positively predicted quitting attempts [ 7 ]. Finally, quitting attempts that lasted >1 month were significantly associated with an intention to quit in 2 months [ 8 ].…”