| Summary: | Introduction
Smoking cessation is defined as a process by which a smoker stops using tobacco with or without support and through one or several attempts, until definitive cessation. Smoking cessation behaviour (SCB) is therefore constituted by the number of attempts and/or relapses that an individual makes with the intention of quitting for good and the intention to quit, factors which also constitute an indicator of either future attempts and/or their ultimate success, abstinence over a year.
Our aim was to examine the relationship between SCB, social class and other socio-demographic variables.
Material and Methods
Retrospective descriptive study in smoking patients seen in a specialised tobacco unit in 2008, 2015 and 2019. The dependent variable was smoking cessation at one year. Independent variables were age, sex, CSO-SEE12 occupational social class in 3 categories (Class I Directors and managers and university professionals, Class II Intermediate occupations and self-employed workers and Class III Manual workers), the occupation in the case of not being an active worker and the number of previous cessation attempts. Project was approved by the research ethics committee. A descriptive and inferential analysis was performed to determine the relationship between occupational social class and smoking cessation and the number of previous quit attempts against sex and year analysed (Chi-square) and with age (Mann-Whitney U), using SPSS v 15.0 statistical package.
Results
1070 patients were included. The mean number of attempts for the total sample was 2.34 (SD: 1.89) with a median of 2.00 (IQR: 2); no differences were found in the number of attempts between the three time periods studied (p = 0.110). No differences by gender were identified (p= 0.830). Although a trend of fewer attempts was detected as socio-economic status decreased: high (2.5) medium (2.3) and low (2.2) (p= 0.736). We did observe significant differences (p<0.001) in the number of previous attempts by those who achieved abstinence at one year (mean 2.51) compared to those who did not (mean 2.12)
Conclusions
In our study the number of attempts prior to definitive cessation was not directly related to social and occupational class. It is noted however that the number of prior attempts is somewhat predictive of potential successful cessation, abstinence at one year.
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