Quitting Attempts in Bangladeshi Male Rural Smokers and Social Correlates

Abstract

Smokers lose, on average, about ten years of life, while smokers who quit before age of 35 years have mortality rates similar to those who never smoked. There is lack of support for smokers in their quitting attempt as well as empirical data to design support strategies. This cross sectional study was conducted in 2012 in rural Tangail, to identify the smoking quitting attempts and its correlates in Bangladeshi population. A total of 505 adult rural smokers were enlisted, and interviewed using a pretested questionnaire in Bangla. Pearsons chi-square tests and logistic regression analysis were done to find out the association before and after controlling for the effects of other variables. The recruited samples were between the ages of 18 and 80 years with a mean (SD) of 42.62 (13.10) years. About three-fourth of the participants (72.5%) did not have any plan to quit smoking. Only 8.4% tried to quit smoking within last 12 months and 13.6% ever in their smoking life, and 5.2% stopped smoking at least for a month. Intention to quit smoking associated with education (p=0.025), age at starting smoking (p <0.001), type of smokers (p <0.001) and number of smoker friends (p <0.001). Type of smokers (p=0.001) and number of smoker friends (p=0.002) showed influence on quitting attempt. Quit attempt was least common at homes (p <0.001) and workplaces (p <0.001) were there was no smoking restrictions. Only 5% tea stalls and 6% restaurants had partial smoking restrictions. About 60% respondents family and 70% colleagues never tried to influence smokers to smoking. Those who were more frequently told more commonly tried to quit smoking (p<0.001). The study revealed that smoking quitting intention and attempt both are at very low level in rural Bangladeshi males, and social attributes significantly correlated to intention and attempting smoking quit. Family and social support in quitting and restrictions at home and workplace might have role in motivating the smokers to quit smoking. To encourage smoking cessation, counseling service needs to be established and quitting aids should be made available at an affordable cost.