Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 52, Issue 4 S212-S221, Copyright © 1997 by The Gerontological Society of America

ARTICLES

Age and stage of readiness for smoking cessation

MA Clark, W Rakowski, FJ Kviz and JW Hogan
Department of Community Health, Brown University, USA. Melissa_Clark.brown.edu

Using the 1992 National Health Interview Survey Cancer Control Supplement, relationships were analyzed between stage of readiness for smoking cessation and background characteristics, smoking behaviors, and smoking-related attitudes among smokers aged 18-29, 30-49, and > or = 50 years. For each age group, an ordinal logistic regression model was computed to identify correlates of readiness to quit. The youngest smokers had attitudes most favorable to being ready to try to quit smoking. For smokers aged 30-49, the influence of a medical provider and perceived health effects of smoking were important correlates of readiness. Among smokers 50 and older, those with realistic health consequences of smoking and those who perceived smoking as addictive were more likely to be ready to quit. The effectiveness of smoking cessation programs might be improved by matching interventions to a smoker's age and stage in the smoking cessation process.

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