The Role of Fear of COVID-19 in Motivation to Quit Smoking and Reductions in Cigarette Smoking: a Pr
Monday, March 22, 2021
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Gold
AK, Hoyt DL, Milligan M, Hiserodt ML, Samora J, Leyro TM, Zvolensky MJ, Otto
MW.
The Role of Fear of
COVID-19 in Motivation to Quit Smoking and Reductions in Cigarette Smoking: a
Preliminary Investigation of At-risk Cigarette Smokers.
Cogn Behav Ther. 2021 Feb 19:1-10. doi: 10.1080/16506073.2021.1877340. Epub
ahead of print. PMID: 33605833.
Preliminary data suggest that cigarette smokers could have an increased
mortality risk from the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), and that certain
factors (e.g., increased age, medical comorbidities) can also increase risk of
poor coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outcomes. Between April 30th, 2020 and May
28th, 2020, we evaluated self-reported changes in recent smoking patterns and
motivation to quit smoking among current daily cigarette smokers (N = 103) on
Amazon Mechanical Turk. We also assessed the relationship of these outcomes to
age, medical comorbidity status, and fear of COVID-19. Most participants
(68.9%) reported smoking less frequently than usual in the last 28 days. Among
daily smokers, increased fear of COVID-19 predicted increased motivation to
quit smoking and actual smoking reductions (ps < .05). Endorsement of one or
more medical comorbidities, but not increased age, predicted increased
motivation to quit smoking (p < .05). These data suggest the potentially
greater relevance of psychological factors (e.g., fear of COVID-19) over
external risk factors (e.g., medical comorbidity, increased age) on motivation
to quit smoking and actual reductions in smoking patterns, and may reflect that
the pandemic is a suitable time for offering smoking cessation intervention.
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