The Potential Effectiveness of COVID-related Smoking Cessation Messages in Three Countries.
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Posted by: Natalia Gromov
Simone
Pettigrew, Min Jun, Ian Roberts, Kellie Nallaiah, Chris Bullen, Anthony
Rodgers.
The Potential
Effectiveness of COVID-related Smoking Cessation Messages in Three Countries.
Nicotine & Tobacco Research, Volume 23, Issue 7, July 2021, Pages
1254–1258, https://doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntab023.
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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