Do Determinants of Smoking Cessation and Relapse Differ between Men and Women? Data from a French National Study

Abstract

Introduction: There is limited understanding of different predictors of smoking cessation success (SCS) among women and men, despite well-documented differences in smoking behavior.

Methods: Using data from DePICT (Description des Perceptions, Images, et Comportements liés au Tabagisme), a national survey of French adults which recruited 2377 regular and former smokers we investigated whether major determinants of SCS differed by sex. Factors associated with unsuccessful vs. No successful quit attempt; vs. SCS were studied using multivariate multinomial logistic regression analyses stratified by sex.

Results: Women and men share some determinants of SCS including no cannabis use, living in a nonsmoker household and importance giving to being a nonsmoker. However, no e-cigarette use, low-to-moderate alcohol consumption, early smoking initiation, and higher education were associated with SCS only among women. No use of nicotine replacement, having family members who smoke, family opinion on smoking and current employment, were associated with SCS only among men. Neutral or negative friends’ opinion on smoking or living with a smoker were associated with unsuccessful smoking attempts among men.

Conclusions: Our results show differences between determinants of SCS according to sex, which highlights the importance of developing tailored interventions that account for sex/gender differences in smoking cessation.

Keywords:

• Smoking cessation
• sex differences
• sex/gender
• smoking

Acknowledgments

We thank members of the DePICT scientific committee: François Beck (OFDT), Renaud Crespin (CNRS), Karine Gallopel-Morvan (EHESP), Gwenn Menvielle (INSERM), Brigitte Metadieu (Association Charonne), Viet Nguyen- Than (ANSP), and Peretti-Watel (INSERM) for their help in discussing the study protocol, questionnaire, and planned analyses. We also want to acknowledge Carla Estaquio and Antoine Deutsch from the French National Cancer Institute (INCa). We also like to acknowledge “MV2” polling institute, as well as “CDA” for monitoring and auditing the study’s execution.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Contributors

MM is the PI and FEKL the co-PI of the DePICT study. All authors were implicated in designing the study, analyzing the data and in the manuscript preparation. AM wrote the first draft of the manuscript and all authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data are available upon request from corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the French National Cancer Institute (INCa) under grant N°2016-097. INCa had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.