Nicotine & Tobacco Research
Introduction
Using the Global Adult Tobacco Surveys from 14 primarily low- and middle-income countries, we describe the association between the probability of being a recent quitter and a number of demographic and policy-relevant factors such as exposure to warning labels, work-site smoking bans, antismoking media messaging, tobacco marketing, and current cigarette and bidi prices.
Methods
Logistic regressions were used to examine the potential correlates of recent quitting and recent quit attempts.
Results
After accounting for country-specific attributes in pooled analyses, we found that higher rates of exposure to worksite smoking bans are associated with higher odds of being a quitter (odds ratio [OR] with 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.13 [1.04, 1.22]). Exposure to antismoking media messaging (OR with 95% CI = 1.08 [1.00, 1.17]), work-site smoking bans (OR with 95% CI = 1.11 [0.99, 1.26]), and warning labels (OR with 95% CI = 1.03 [1.01, 1.05]); cigarette prices (OR with 95% CI = 1.01 [1.00, 1.02]); and bidi prices (OR with 95% CI =1.17 [1.11, 1.22]) are factors associated with higher odds of recent quit attempts in the pooled analysis. These effects vary by country. Exposure to warning labels is found to be associated with greater likelihood of recent quitting in Egypt (OR with 95% CI = 3.20 [1.53, 6.68]), and the positive association between exposure to work-site smoking bans and quitting is particularly strong for Southeast Asia (OR with 95% CI = 1.20 [1.06, 1.35]) and Asia Pacific countries (OR with 95% CI = 1.85 [0.93, 3.68]). Additionally, exposure to tobacco industry marketing is significantly associated with smaller odds of quitting in Asia Pacific (OR with 95% CI = 0.83 [0.79, 0.87]) and Latin American countries (OR with 95% CI = 0.78 [0.74, 0.82]).
Conclusions
Although our results vary by country, they generally suggest that greater exposure to tobacco control polices is
significantly associated with quitting.