Study on Factors Related to Home Quarantine and Smoking Behavior for People Trying to Quit Smoking in Beijing Communities during the Epidemic of COVID-19 Period and its Inspiration to Tobacco Control Policies

Abstract

Background: To understand the quit smoking status of people trying to quit smoking in Beijing communities during the epidemic of COVID-19 period, analyze their changes in smoking behavior, relapse thought, nicotine dependence, willingness to quit smoking compared with before the epidemic, and correlation with home stay time, change in psychological mood and smoking status during independent home quarantine so as to provide reference for tobacco control and optimization of quitting smoking guidance service during normalization of epidemic prevention and control. Methods: To interview 388 people who are trying to quit smoking and involved in quitting smoking intervention service by one-to-one face interview before outbreak and one-to-one telephone survey during the epidemic period. The survey covers daily home stay time, psychological mood, tobacco use, nicotine dependence, and willingness to quit smoking. Adopt 1:2 propensity score matching, and take whether to consume quit smoking drugs and whether to participate in regular follow-ups as the matching conditions to control confounder. After matching, the c2 test, t test, and rank sum test were used to compare correlative factors such as smoking behavior change, relapse thought, nicotine dependence, and change in willingness to quit smoking between people who have quit and those who have not quit. Results: A total of 348 cases were successfully matched, including 137 who have quit smoking and 211 who have not quit smoking. The difference in two groups of baseline data after matching was no statistically significant (P>0.05). During the epidemic period, the quit smoking rate (39.9%) was higher than that (25.0%) before the outbreak. The average daily smoking (7.10±8.473) was lower than that (7.77±8.405) before the outbreak. The score of Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence (1.91±2.449) was lower than that (4.35±2.518) before the outbreak; the score of the assessment scale of willingness to quit smoking (38.17±12.377) was higher than that (19.78±9.103) before the outbreak; the smoking change of non-smokers before and after outbreak was related to distress, calm psychological mood, relief of sorrow and boredom, smoking addiction and habit (P<0.05); nicotine dependence was related to the psychological mood of distress (P<0.05), and the willingness to quit smoking was related to the daily home stay time (P<0.05); For those who had quit smoking successfully, the smoking change was related to the psychological mood of distress, relief of sorrow and boredom, alleviation of stress, smoking addiction and habit (P<0.05); relapse thought was related to the psychological mood of distress, relief of sorrow and boredom, recreation and alleviation of stress (P<0.05); nicotine dependence was related to the daily home stay time, calm psychological mood and smoking addition (P<0.05), and the willingness to quit smoking related to recreation and smoking addition(P<0.05). Conclusions: During the epidemic period, people who tried to quit smoking reduced their smoking, nicotine dependence, and their willingness to quit smoking increased. During normalization of epidemic prevention and control, social activities decrease and home stay time increased, which created favorable conditions for quitting smoking and tobacco control. However, negative emotions during home stay, relief of sorrow and boredom and smoking addition may restore smoking behavior and relapse thought. It is recommended that family members provide more support and encouragement to smoke quitters, and supervise and help them reduce smoking. During normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the quit smoking service center should alleviate negative emotion of quitters and break connection between existing smoking habit and negative emotion and environmental temptation.