Intentions and Attempts to Quit Smoking Among Sexual Minoritized Adult Smokers After Exposure to the Tips From Former Smokers Campaign

Abstract

Importance: Significant disparities exist in smoking behaviors by sexual minority status in the US.

Objective: To examine potential differences in the associations between exposure to the Tips From Former Smokers (Tips) campaign and intentions and attempts to quit smoking by sexual minority status.

Design, setting, and participants: This cross-sectional study used data from the wave 5 survey of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study. Data from 8072 adults who were currently established cigarette smokers were collected from December 2018 to November 2019 and analyzed in August 2021. The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study is an ongoing cohort study representative of the noninstitutionalized US population. Sample weights were applied to account for the complex sampling strategies.

Exposures: Dichotomized self-reported frequent Tips exposure (often and very often) and infrequent exposure (never, rarely, and sometimes).

Main outcomes and measures: Outcomes were intention to quit within 12 months, any serious quit attempts in the past 12 months, and number of serious quit attempts in the past 12 months. Multivariate logistic and ordinal logistic regressions were used to estimate the weighted associations between exposure and each outcome. Interactions between Tips exposure and sexual minority status were examined to explore potential differences.

Results: A total of 8072 participants (mean [SD] age, 44.7 [14.8] years; 3888 [53.2%] male; 4962 [67.4%] non-Hispanic White; and 915 [9.5%] sexual minoritized individuals [ie, those who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or another minoritized sexual identity]) were included. Frequent Tips exposure was associated with higher odds of quit intentions and attempts overall (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.25; 95% CI, 1.07-1.46 for intention to quit within 12 months; aOR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.08-1.47 for serious quit attempts in the past 12 months; and aOR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.06-1.44 for number of serious quit attempts in the past 12 months). These associations were significantly stronger for heterosexual smokers than sexual minoritized smokers, as indicated by the significant interaction terms (aOR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.36-0.96 for intention to quit within 12 months; aOR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.24-0.70 for serious quit attempts in the past 12 months; and aOR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.24-0.67 for number of serious quit attempts in the past 12 months). Subgroup analysis showed that heterosexual smokers who reported frequent Tips exposure were more likely to intend to quit within 12 months (aOR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.10-1.53), have had any serious quit attempts in the past 12 months (aOR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.13-1.58), and have had more serious quit attempts (aOR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.12-1.54) than heterosexual smokers who reported infrequent exposure. In contrast, there was no association for sexual minoritized smokers (aOR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.52-1.30 for intention to quit within 12 months; aOR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.39-1.07 for serious quit attempts in the past 12 months; and aOR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.38-1.00 for number of serious quit attempts in the past 12 months).

Conclusions and relevance: These findings suggest that significant differences exist in the associations between Tips exposure and quit intentions or attempts by sexual minority status. More targeted campaign content for sexual minoritized smokers may be needed to increase quit intentions and attempts among this group.