Risk perception and intention to quit among a tri-ethnic sample of nondaily, light daily, and moderate/heavy daily smokers

IntroductionAlthough the relationship between risk perceptions and quit intentions has been established, few studies explore the potential impact of smoking level on these associations, and none have done so among diversely-aged samples of multiple ethnicities.MethodsParticipants, ranging in age from 25 to 81, were 1133 nondaily smokers (smoked ≥ 1 cigarette on 4 to 24 days in the past 30 days), 556 light daily smokers (≤ 10 cigarettes per day), and 585 moderate to heavy daily smokers (> 10 cigarettes per day). Each smoking level comprised approximately equal numbers of African Americans, Latinos, and Whites. A logistic regression analysis, adjusted for sociodemographics, self-rated health, time to the first cigarette of the day and smoking level, was used to examine the association between risk perception (perceived risk of acquiring lung cancer, lung disease, and heart disease) and intention to quit (≤ 6 months versus > 6 months/never). A second adjusted model tested moderation by smoking level with an interaction term.ResultsGreater risk perception was associated with a higher odds of planning to quit within 6 months (AOR = 1.34, CI.95 = 1.24, 1.45). Smoking level did not moderate this association (p = .85).ConclusionsResults suggest that educating all smokers, irrespective of their smoking level, about increased risk of developing smoking-related diseases might be a helpful strategy to enhance their intention to make a smoking quit attempt.