The Potential Effectiveness of COVID-related Smoking Cessation Messages in Three Countries.
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Pettigrew
S, Jun M, Roberts I, Nallaiah K, Bullen C, Rodgers A.
The Potential
Effectiveness of COVID-related Smoking Cessation Messages in Three Countries.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2021 Mar 30:ntab023. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntab023. Epub ahead of
print. PMID: 33782699.
Introduction.
Health authorities are advising smokers to quit to reduce their COVID-related
risk. The types of messages that may be effective in alerting smokers to this
risk and encouraging a quit attempt are unknown. The aim of this study was to
test a series of messages to identify potentially effective communication
approaches.
Methods. An
online survey was completed by 1509 smokers across three countries (Australia:
n = 604; New Zealand: n = 304; United Kingdom: n = 601) in April-May 2020.
Respondents were randomly assigned to view just one of four quit messages, two
of which explicitly referred to the coronavirus, one referred to risk of chest
infection, and one encouraged cessation for financial reasons. Outcome
variables included quit intentions, further information seeking, message
perceptions, and health and financial concerns.
Results.
All four messages were associated with significant differences in the
proportions of respondents intending to quit within the following 2 wk
(increase range: 11%-34%) and with substantial proportions of respondents
electing to access additional information (range: 37%-50%). The differences in
intentions were significantly larger for the two health-related messages that
specifically mentioned the coronavirus. All messages were perceived favorably
in terms of acceptability, believability, effectiveness, and personal
relevance. Negligible differences in health and financial concerns were
observed.
Conclusions.
Smokers in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom appear likely to be
receptive to messages about their COVID-related risk. Such messages have the
potential to increase quit intentions and prompt information-seeking behaviors.
Implications.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents an opportunity to encourage smokers to quit to
reduce both their COVID-related risks and their risks of a broad range of noncommunicable
diseases.
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