Smoking cessation subjects in Beijing communities were isolated at home during the COVID-19 pandemic-—Study on the influence of smoking behaviour and willingness to quit smoking
Authors: Jin Qianying , Qiao Kun , Liu Han , Ma Hanqiao , Bai Xinyuan , Qi Xinran , Li Xingming 
Published: December 2020

Background: To understand the situation about quarantine of smoking cessation participants in Beijing communities during the period of COVID-19, and to explore this pandemic’s impacts on people’s smoking behaviours, relapse thoughts, and willingness to quit smoking among quitters, to provide information and guidance on quit smoking during the normalised period of epidemic prevention and control. Methods: Before the coronavirus outbreak, one-to-one interviews were used, and during the epidemic period, one-to-one question-and-answer telephone surveys were used. The contents of the survey included the hours of staying at home, psychological and emotional state, tobacco use, and willingness to quit smoking. This study adopted a 1:1 propensity score matching method, with education level, whether to take smoking cessation drugs, and whether to participate in regular follow-ups as matching conditions to control the mixed influence of the content of smoking cessation intervention services on the analysis results before the pandemic. After matching, the chi-square statistics, Fisher exact probability method, and the Spearman rank correlation test were used to analyse factors such as changes in smoking behaviour, hours of staying at home, and mental states.Results: A total of 197 pairs were successfully matched, of which 197 cases had successfully quit smoking before the epidemic, and 197 cases had not completely quit smoking. The changes in smoking volume before and during the epidemic of the incomplete quitters were affected by anxiety, calmness, mental and emotional states similar to usual, other reasons for smoking such as addiction and habits, and their willingness to quit during the epidemic (all P<0.05). The changes in daily smoking volume before and after the epidemic among the ex-smokers were statistically significant in the distribution of relapse thoughts, anxiety, depression, and other reasons for smoking, such as depression and boredom, idle pastimes, addiction and habits(P<0.05). Among the people who did not completely quit smoking before the epidemic, the idea of ​​relapse was affected by depression, calm mental and emotional state, reasons for smoking that relieve boredom and leisure, and the willingness to quit smoking during the epidemic (P<0.05). And there is a negative correlation between the willingness to quit smoking during the epidemic and the time at home each day(rs =-0.237, P<0.05).Conclusions: During the COVID-19, the time at home of the test patients who quit smoking has a certain influence on their willingness to quit smoking. The psychological and emotional changes and idleness at home have a greater impact on the changes in their smoking behaviour and relapse thoughts. It is recommended that family members provide more support and encourage and supervise to help smokers reduce smoking. In the period of normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the smoking cessation services provided should guide the quitters on smoking cessation behavioural therapy, as well as guidance on the relief of negative emotions, and help quitters to break the relationship between existing smoking habits, negative emotions, and environmental temptation situations.Trial registration: The study was registered on the official website of the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry on August 6, 2019, with the registration number ChiCTR1900024991.