Pain Severity in Relation to Smoking Cessation Problems and Self-Efficacy for Quitting among Latinx Individuals Who Smoke Cigarettes: The Moderating Role of Perceived Discrimination

Abstract

Background: Latinx individuals experience significant tobacco cigarette smoking-related diseases and illnesses. Although most Latinx smokers report a desire to quit smoking, evidenced-based cessation treatments are underutilized in this group, which may partially be due to lower likelihood of receiving advice from a healthcare professional. Further, there are a lack of cessation treatments that account for comorbid symptoms/conditions (e.g., co-occurring pain) and social determinants of health (e.g., perceived discrimination). Extant work has established the reciprocal relation between pain and smoking trajectories. Additionally, although social determinants, such as perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, have demonstrated clinical relevance to a variety of health-related behaviors, limited work has examined the role of perceived discrimination in pain-smoking relations. The current study examined the effects of perceived discrimination and pain severity in relation to smoking cessation problems and self-efficacy for quitting among Latinx cigarette smokers. Method: Participants included 226 (M_age = 34.95 years, SD = 8.62; 38.5% female) adult Latinx daily cigarette smokers. Results: Results indicated that the interaction of pain and perceived discrimination was predictive of greater quit problems (p = 0.041) as well as greater confidence in the ability to refrain from smoking in response to internal (p < 0.001) and external stimuli (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Overall, this work provides a more nuanced understanding of the psychosocial contexts in which Latinx smokers may encounter problems related to quitting, and this data is important for future smoking cessation research and treatment.

Keywords:

• Pain severity
• smoking cessation
• self-efficacy
• tobacco
• cigarette
• Latinx/Hispanic

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Disclosure statement

Ezemenari M. Obasi is the founder and sole owner of HEALTH Equity Empowerment, LLC.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, L.G., upon reasonable request.

Correction Statement

This article was originally published with errors, which have now been corrected in the online version. Please see Correction (https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2023.2279887).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the University of Houston under Award Number U54MD015946. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.