Predictors of smoking cessation among adult smokers in Malaysia and Thailand: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Southeast Asia Survey

Abstract

Introduction: Limited longitudinal studies on smoking cessation have been reported in Asia, and it remains unclear whether determinants of quitting are similar to those found in Western countries. This study examined prospective predictors of smoking cessation among adult smokers in Thailand and Malaysia.Methods: Four thousand and four smokers were surveyed in Malaysia and Thailand in 2005. Of these, 2,426 smokers were followed up in 2006 (61% retention). Baseline measures of sociodemographics, dependence, and interest in quitting were used to predict both making quit attempts and point prevalence maintenance of cessation.Results: More Thai than Malaysian smokers reported having made quit attempts between waves, but among those who tried, the rates of staying quit were not considerably different between Malaysians and Thais. Multivariate analyses showed that smoking fewer cigarettes per day, higher levels of self-efficacy, and more immediate quitting intentions were predictive of both making a quit attempt and staying quit in both countries. Previous shorter quit attempts and higher health concerns about smoking were only predictive of making an attempt, whereas prior abstinence for 6 months or more and older age were associated with maintenance.Discussion: In Malaysia and Thailand, predictors of quitting activity appear to be similar. However, as in the West, predictors of making quit attempts are not all the same as those who predict maintenance. The actual predictors differ in potentially important ways from those found in the West. We need to determine the relative contributions of cultural factors and the shorter history of efforts to encourage quitting in Asia.

Determinants of Tobacco Cessation Behaviour among Smokers and Smokeless Tobacco Users in the States of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, India

“…Our study did not find age, gender or urban/rural residence to be a significant predictor which is similar to the findings from the four country ITC survey (Hyland, et al, 2006) of western countries in year 2006 but different from the recent ITC study from Malaysia and Thailand in 2010 which reported both age and urban/ rural residence to be a significant predictors of quit attempts (Lin et al, 2010). It has also investigated some unique factors like type of family structure, community (caste), rural versus urban residence, which have strong socio-cultural influence in rural areas which were not found to be associated in the present case but may certainly be worth studying further by qualitative methods in any future comprehensive assessment.…”

Cigarette Smoking and Quit Attempts Among Injection Drug Users in Tijuana, Mexico

“…The negative association between the number of cigarettes smoked per day and quit attempts that we found is consistent with studies conducted among the general population of smokers in China, Thailand, and Malaysia (Li et al, 2010;Yang et al, 2011). Another study conducted in China did not find this association but found that the time to first cigarette, another measure of cigarette dependence, predicted quit attempts .…”

Evaluation of biological, psychosocial, and interventional predictors for success of a smoking cessation programme in Hong Kong

“…In many studies of predictors, 15,22 results for gender, number of previous attempts, education level and social status, years of smoking, and history of depression have been inconsistent. In our study, a more comprehensive list of potential predictors from five domains (namely, demographics, health-related, smoking-related, psychosocial, and interventional variables) was included.…”

“…36,37 The link between self-efficacy and successful quitting has long been established. 22,38 Both external and internal self-efficacy in SEQ-12 scales have been found to be predictive in smoking cessation in western countries. 21 In our study, after adjusting all potential predictors, a high degree of confidence and external self-efficacy were predictive of cessation, while the predictive ability of total and internal sub-score of SEQ-12 faded after adjustment.…”