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. 2021 Aug 23:9:684683.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.684683. eCollection 2021.

Antecedents and Consequences of Smoking Cessation Intention in the Context of the Global COVID-19 Infodemic

Guangchao Charles Feng  1 , Shan Zhu  1 , Xinshu Zhao  2
Affiliations

Antecedents and Consequences of Smoking Cessation Intention in the Context of the Global COVID-19 Infodemic

Guangchao Charles Feng et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

A growing body of scientific studies has been published to inform responses to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and some have claimed that cigarette smoking has a beneficial or mixed effect on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. The presentation of such findings, unfortunately, has created an infodemic. This study integrated the theory of planned behavior and the health belief model and incorporated findings on addiction from the medical literature to predict cessation intention and support for tobacco control measures in the context of the COVID-19 infodemic. The study found that cessation intention partially mediated the effect of perceived severity and fully mediated the effects of perceived benefits, self-efficacy, and addiction on support for control measures. In addition, a positively-valenced message of the effect of smoking on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 vs. a mixedly-valenced message was significant in predicting cessation intention, and the positively-valenced message of smoking indirectly predicted support for tobacco control measures. Perceived susceptibility, barriers, and subjective norms, however, exerted neither direct nor indirect effects on the two outcome variables.

Keywords: COVID-19; China; HBM; TPB; antismoking; infodemic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Estimation results of the proposed model (Model 1).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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