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. 2023 May 5:21:56.
doi: 10.18332/tid/161860. eCollection 2023.

Perceived increased susceptibility to COVID-19 due to smoking was associated with reduced smoking at home but not on the streets amid the pandemic: A population-based cross-sectional study

Ying Yao  1 , Derek Yee Tak Cheung  1 , Tzu Tsun Luk  1 , Tai Hing Lam  2 , Yongda Socrates Wu  1 , Man Ping Wang  1
Affiliations

Perceived increased susceptibility to COVID-19 due to smoking was associated with reduced smoking at home but not on the streets amid the pandemic: A population-based cross-sectional study

Ying Yao et al. Tob Induc Dis. .

Abstract

Introduction: Perceived risk of COVID-19 infection is associated with smoking behaviors, but the change in smoking across different settings are uncertain. We examined the associations of perceived increased susceptibility to COVID-19 due to smoking with change in smoking at home and on the streets.

Methods: We analyzed data of 1120 current cigarette smokers aged ≥15 years from a population-based telephone survey in Hong Kong. Perceived increased susceptibility to COVID-19 due to smoking, change in smoking, intention to quit, and tobacco dependence were measured. We used Poisson regression with robust variance to estimate adjusted risk ratio (ARR) for associations, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, intention to quit, and time to first cigarette after waking.

Results: More current smokers reduced smoking on the streets (46.1%; 95% CI: 42.8-50.0) than at home (8.7%; 95% CI: 7.0-10.8). Perceived increased susceptibility to COVID-19 due to smoking was associated with smoking reduction at home (ARR=3.29; 95% CI: 1.80-6.00, p<0.001) but not on the streets (ARR=1.13; 95% CI: 0.98-1.30, p=0.09). More smokers with stronger quit intention and lower tobacco dependence reduced smoking at home but not on the streets in those with high perceived increased susceptibility to COVID-19 due to smoking.

Conclusions: This is the first report showing that more cigarette smokers reduced smoking on the streets than at home, and the perceived increased susceptibility to COVID-19 due to smoking was only associated with smoking reduction at home but not on the streets. Improving smokers' awareness of the susceptibility to COVID-19 may be an effective strategy to reduce tobacco consumption and secondhand smoke exposure at home within the context of future respiratory pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; changes; risk perception; smoking; tobacco.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. The authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or otherwise, related to the current work. All the authors report that since the initial planning of the work, this study was supported by the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of numbers of included and excluded respondents
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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