Factors associated with baseline smoking selfefficacy among male Qatari residents enrolled in a quit smoking study

Abstract

Smoking self-efficacy, described as confidence in one's ability to abstain from smoking in high-risk situations is a key predictor in cessation outcomes; however, there is a dearth of research on factors that influence self-efficacy surrounding smoking behavior. This study examines factors associated with baseline self-efficacy among treatment seeking participants enrolled in a pilot feasibility smoking cessation study. Participants (n = 247) were daily male smokers, residents of Doha in Qatar (18-60 years) who were enrolled in a telephonebased smoking cessation study. Baseline assessments included self-efficacy, home smoking rules, socio-demographic variables, smoking history, and psychosocial characteristics. Factors associated with self-efficacy were assessed using multiple linear regression analysis. Results showed that after controlling for relevant variables, number of cigarettes smoked (β = -0.22; 95% CI: -0.37, -0.06), having at least one quit attempt in the past year (β = 2.30; 95% CI: 0.27, 4.35), and reporting a complete home smoking ban (β = 3.13; 95% CI: 0.56, 5.70) were significantly associated with higher self-efficacy to quit smoking. These results provide data-driven indication of several key variables that can be targeted to increase smoking self-efficacy in this understudied population. © 2022 Al Thani et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.