Willingness to quit tobacco smoking and its correlates among Indian smokers - findings from GATS India, 2009 - 10

Background In the behavioural change model for smoking cessation 'willingness to quit' forms the starting point. Identifying these sects of smokers who are willing to quit can lead to important policy development and program implementation in any country. To determine the prevalence and correlates of willingness to quit among smokers in India from Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), 2009-10. Methods Secondary data analysis of GATS, 2009-10 was done to find the correlates of willingness to quit among smokers. All the socio-demographic variables, smoking related factors like frequency, previous attempt to quit and also effect of anti-tobacco messages delivered to various media were tested for association using multivariate analysis. Prevalence rate ratio with 95% CI was used to report the risk. Results Of the 9627 current smokers analysed, 50.9% (95% CI: 49.9% to 51.9%) were willing to quit smoking. Among these; 25.1% and 26.0% were willing to quit within the next month and within next 12 months respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that younger age, individuals who have their first smoke after 60 minutes of wakeup, those living in a house with smoking restriction, those who received advice to quit from doctor, those who attempted to quit in the past 12 months, having knowledge about illness caused due to smoking and those who have noticed anti-smoking messages in billboards / hoardings were willing to quit smoking compared to their counterparts. Conclusions About one in two smokers were willing to quit smoking and, among those who were willing to quit, half of them were willing to do so within the next one year. Targeted interventions can be planned in the sub-groups identified