Survey on smoking/smoking cessation status and related factors of smoking cessation between urban and rural adult smokers in Wenzhou

Objective To study the behaviors of smoking/smoking cessation and the factors related to smoking cessation in adult smokers of Wenzhou. Methods Stratified multi-stage probability proportionate to size sampling (PPS) method and simply random sampling were carried out step by step to select subjects; Lucheng, Ouhai, Longwan, Rui'an, Yueqing, Yongjia were selected from the 11 counties of Wenzhou in the first step, then 1 or 2 streets were selected by PPS within the chosen district or county, after that, 2 communities were selected from every street with PPS, and 300 families were chosen with simply random sampling method and registered as well, then, by the random sampling method, 40 adult smokers were chosen among the registered ones. General information, smoking status, smoking cessation and its associated factors of the 40 smokers were collected by face to face interviews with a questionnaire between October and December of 2014. At the end, the rates and constituent ratios were compared by χ2 test, and the Logistic regression was used to explore the influential factors of smoking cessation among the smokers. Results Present smoking rate among Wenzhou male residents aged 18 years or over was 22.3% (3 310/14 817), in males it was 43.0% (3 252/7 556), (urban male 42.0%, rural male 43.9%), and in female it was 0.8% (58/7 261) (urban female 1.0%, rural female 0.7%). The average age of their first time smoking among rural smokers was earlier than the urban ones'(19.65±4.30 vs. 21.87±7.30, P<0.01), with 81.4% (522/641) of the smokers smoked every day and started their daily smoking patterns since the average age of (25.32±15.06), besides these, 46.2% (295/641) of them smoked more than 20 cigarettes per day. Among the smokers investigated, the total smoking-quitting rate was 37.8% (242/641), with 41.3% (100/242) of smokers trying to quit smoking more than once in the last 12 months. The results of multi-variate logistic regression demonstrated that getting ill in the past year (OR=2.608, 95% CI: 1.217 -3.810), friends quitted smoking successfully (OR=1.490, 95%CI: 1.124 -1.750), concerning about their health (OR=1.616, 95%CI: 1.127 - 2.319) were associated with urban smokers' intention to quit smoking; people being in good health would not take quitting smoking into account (OR=0.761, 95% CI=0.582 -0.994). As to rural smokers, except for getting ill in the past year (OR=2.997, 95%CI: 1.651 -5.435), and shortage of money was another important reason that could promote them to quit smoking (OR=1.519, 95% CI: 1.076 -2.142). Conclusion Knowledge of smoking harmfulness among smokers was still insufficient, and the smokers' intention to quit smoking was associated with individual and environmental factors. To promote smokers to quit, smoking cessation service providing and education for tobacco control should be strengthened. Key words: Smoking; Smoking cessation; Behavior