Anti-smoking social norms are associated with increased cessation behaviours among lower and higher socioeconomic status smokers: a population-based cohort study

The aims of this study were to describe the prevalence of adult smokers’ smoking-related perceptions of disapproval from family and friends, feelings of embarrassment and close others’ quitting activity overall and across socioeconomic status (SES) subgroups, to examine associations of these social norms with quitting self-efficacy, urgency, intentions and behaviours, and to determine if these associations differed by SES. <br><br>Data were from the Victorian Tracking Survey (VTS), which is a continuous cross-sectional telephone survey of Victorian adults aged 18-59 years who were smokers (currently smoked daily or weekly, or smoked monthly or less-than-monthly but self-identified as a smoker) or recent quitters (quit in the last year). The VTS monitors recall of state-funded anti-tobacco mass media campaigns and smoking-related cognitions and behaviours. <br> <br>Participants were recruited for the baseline interview using a dual-frame probability sampling design, with half of all participants approached via landline and half via mobile phone random digit dialling. Telephone interviews were conducted in English, and only participants who reported watching any free-to-air commercial television on an average weekday were eligible to participate. The mean monthly baseline response rate, adjusted for those who declined to be formally screened but may have been in-scope for the interview, was 42%. <br> <br>For the first three years of this survey (January 2012 to November 2014) participants were contacted for participation in a follow-up interview approximately one week after the baseline interview, only if during their baseline interview they recalled one of the state-funded advertisements that had been broadcast. Of 2,363 baseline smokers who were eligible for follow-up (i.e. recalled an advertisement and were not a recent quitter), 1,434 were successfully re-interviewed (61%) (n(weighted) = 1,459). A total of 1,348 participants had complete data on all predictors, outcomes and covariates of interest for the current study and were included in this dataset (n(weighted) = 1,373). <br> <br>For analyses, data were weighted to account for telephony status (landline or mobile phone), sex and age, according to estimates of these distributions from a representative sample of smokers and recent quitters collected in the Victorian Smoking and Health Survey in November/early December each year [1]. <br> [1] Hayes L, Durkin S, Bain E, Wakefield M. Smoking prevalence and consumption in Victoria: key findings from the Victorian Smoking and Health population surveys. CBRC Research Paper Series No.47. Melbourne, Australia: Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council of Victoria, Prepared for: Quit Victoria; 2016 December.