Socioeconomic Moderators of the Relationship Between Different Quitting Motives and Smoking Cessation in Hong Kong Men

Abstract

To facilitate effective tobacco control, it is important to identify the socioeconomic strata in which different quitting motives are more strongly associated with cessation. This study aims to examine such a moderating role of socioeconomic background. A total of 2022 past or current daily smoking men from the Hong Kong Thematic Household Survey 2010 who had attempted for cessation were analyzed. Binary socioeconomic indicators, quitting motives, and 1-year abstinence were entered in an exploratory backward-stepwise log-linear model, followed by a binary logistic regression to estimate the probability of one-year abstinence in each socioeconomic stratum. Results suggest that the association between cessation and health motives is stronger in less educated men ( P = .004) and nonmarried men ( P = .003). The estimated probability of cessation ranges from 0.02 (95% CI = 0.00-0.06) to 0.96 (95% CI = 0.89-1.00). Accordingly, policy makers should educate less-educated men and nonmarried men about the adverse health impacts of tobacco use.

Keywords: Hong Kong; log-linear modeling; motives for smoking cessation; one-year abstinence; socioeconomic status.