Identifying stages of smoke and smokeless tobacco cessation among adults in India: an application of transtheoretical model

ABSTRACT

Introduction

In this paper, we used the transtheoretical model of stages of change to study the addictive behavior of smokers, which is a continuum of stages, namely pre-contemplation, contemplation, and preparation, and classify the tobacco users in these three stages to study the differentials and factors determining these stages.

Data and Methodology

This study used the data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)-2 conducted in 2016–17 in India. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict the probabilities for different stages according to socio-demographic factors and factors related to tobacco use such as nicotine dependency, information about dangers about tobacco use, etc.

Results

Among 9499 smoking tobacco users, 44.73% of users are in the pre-contemplation stage, 46.83% in contemplation, and only 8.43% in the preparation stage. The probability of a smoker to be in the preparation stage for quitting after knowing the dangers of smoking is 0.11.

Conclusion

We found a significant association between the stages of smoke and smokeless tobacco cessation and socio-demographic characteristics and the factors related to smoke and smokeless tobacco use. Contemplation is a major driver of tobacco cessation. These stages may help tobacco control program implementation more effectively and efficiently.

KEYWORDS:

• Tobacco use
• tobacco cessation
• transtheoretical model
• quitting tobacco
• contemplation
• nicotine dependency
• India

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

There was no funding for this study.