Intention to Quit Tobacco and Its Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study among Support Staff Currently Using Tobacco in A Medical College of Kolkata

Aparajita Mondal; Sinjita Dutta; Subhra Samujjwal Basu

doi:10.55489/njcm.170120265903

Authors

Aparajita Mondal Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, West Bengal, India https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0493-9755
Sinjita Dutta Department of Community Medicine, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, West Bengal, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1957-873X
Subhra Samujjwal Basu Department of Community Medicine, Maharaja Jitendra Narayan Medical College & Hospital, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2027-6229

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55489/njcm.170120265903

Keywords:

Tobacco use cessation, Health Personnel, Intention, Cross-Sectional Studies, Tobacco dependence, India

Abstract

Introduction: Tobacco consumption increases the risk of developing lung diseases, cancer and heart related conditions. The intention to quit smoking is widely recognized as a strong predictor of actual quitting and its promotion is needed as it has significant and immediate health benefits, especially among people working in health care systems as they are in close contact with patients.

Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among 288 support staff of IPGME&R, Kolkata between January to March 2024. Data were collected via a predesigned pre-tested structured schedule through face-to-face interviews and analysed using SPSS v25.0 with appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics.

Results: Out of 288 study participants, 50% were addicted to chewing/smokeless tobacco, and 75% among them had tobacco dependence. Among the smokers, 67.7% had high dependence. Nearly two third (62.2%) intended to quit tobacco in last 12 months. Male gender [AOR 6.69 (2.65-16.86)], frequency of tobacco consumption <5 times/day [AOR 2.59 (1.27-5.29)] had higher odds with intention to quit tobacco.

Conclusion: One fourth of the smokers showed very high dependence whereas three fourth of smokeless tobacco users had tobacco dependence. Around two third intended to quit tobacco last 12 months.

References

World Health Organization. Tobacco;2025 [Internet]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco. [Accessed on November 21, 2025]

Jha P, MacLennan M, Chaloupka FJ, et al. Global Hazards of Tobacco and the Benefits of Smoking Cessation and Tobacco Taxes. In: Gelband H, Jha P, Sankaranarayanan R, et al., editors. Cancer: Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (Volume 3). Washington (DC): The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; 2015 Nov 1. Chapter 10. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK343639/ DOI: https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0349-9_ch10

CDC. Smoking and Tobacco Use [Internet]. 2024. Preventing Exposure to Second-hand Smoke in the Community. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/secondhand-smoke/community.html. [Accessed on November 23, 2025]

Bharati B, Sahu KS, Pati S. Prevalence of smokeless tobacco use in India and its association with various occupations: A LASI study. Front Public Health. 2023 Feb 27;11:1005103. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1005103 PMid:36923032 PMCid:PMC10008850

Sharma P, Cheah NP, Kaur J, Sathiya Kumar S, Rao V, Morsed FA, Choo MYB, Murthy P. Physical and chemical characterization of smokeless tobacco products in India. Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 1;13(1):8901. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-35455-3 PMid:37264008 PMCid:PMC10235085

Shaikh R., Janssen F., Vogt T. The progression of the tobacco epidemic in India on the national and regional level, 1998-2016. BMC Public Health; 2022:22(317). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-12261-y PMid:35168590 PMCid:PMC8845293

National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019-21: India [Internet]. 2022. Available from: https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/national-family-health-survey-nfhs-5-2019-21-india/ [Accessed on December 7, 2025]

World Health Organization. South-East Asia India. GATS 2 State fact sheet [Internet]. Available from: https://www.who.int/india/health-topics/tobacco/gats2-state-fact-sheet [Accessed on November 23, 2025]

Dasgupta A, Ghosh P, Paul B, Roy S, Ghose S, Yadav A. Factors Associated with Intention and Attempt to Quit: A Study among Current Smokers in a Rural Community of West Bengal. Indian J Community Med. 2021 Apr-Jun;46(2):216-220. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/ijcm.IJCM_214_20 PMID: 34321729 PMCID: PMC8281856

Shaashi UH, Pethagounder TR, Rajaram MK, Fenn SM, Appusamy K. Evaluation of Nicotine Dependence Among Smokeless Tobacco Users Using the Fagerstrom Nicotine Dependence Scale for Smokeless Tobacco. Cureus. 2023 May 6;15(5):e38639. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.38639 PMid:37288236 PMCid:PMC10243400

Ghodke M. Updated BG Prasad's Socioeconomic Status Classification for the Year 2023. Indian J Community Med. 2023 Nov-Dec;48(6):934-936. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/ijcm.ijcm_401_23 PMid:38249702 PMCid:PMC10795881

Aryanpur M, Masjedi MR, Mortaz E, Hosseini M, et al. Intention to Quit Smoking and Associated Factors in Smokers Newly Diagnosed with Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Tanaffos. 2016;15(1):17-24. PMID: 27403174; PMCID: PMC4937757.

John RM, Sung HY, Max WB, Ross H. Counting 15 million more poor in India, thanks to tobacco. Tob Control. 2011 Sep;20(5):349-352. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/tc.2010.040089 PMid:21292807

Panigrahi A, Sharama D, Maharana S. Intention to Quit Tobacco Use and its Determinants Among Adolescent Tobacco Users Residing in Slum Areas of Bhubaneswar, India: A Cross-Sectional Study. Ind J Med Paediatr Oncol 2021;42(5):444-450. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0041-1740602

Ahmed S, Nimonkar RA, Sharma V, Pardal MPS, Rajiva K. Study of the prevalence of tobacco consumption among apparently healthy adult males in an urban area. J Family Med Prim Care. 2023 Dec;12(12):3298-3303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_872_23 PMid:38361906 PMCid:PMC10866258

Rajiva, Minhas S, Basavaraj, Singh PMP, Yadav AK. Tobacco consumption patterns amongst recruits at a training centre. Int J Community Med Public Health 2022;9(1):171-174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20214991

Sarkar A, Roy D, Nongpiur A. A population-based study on tobacco consumption in urban slums: Its prevalence, pattern, and determinants. J Family Med Prim Care. 2019 Mar;8(3):892-898. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_42_19 PMid:31041220 PMCid:PMC6482753

Islam K, Datta AK, Seth S, Roy A, Das R. A study on the prevalence and correlates of nicotine dependence among adolescents of Burdwan Town, West Bengal. Indian J Psychiatry. 2019 Jan-Feb;61(1):89-93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_112_18 PMID: 30745660 PMCID: PMC6341911

Ebbert JO, Patten CA, Schroeder DR. The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence-Smokeless Tobacco (FTND-ST). Addict Behav. 2006 Sep;31(9):1716-1721. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2005.12.015 PMid:16448783 PMCid:PMC1618870

Casado L, Thrasher JF, Perez C, Santos Thuler LC, Fong GT. Factors associated with quit attempts and smoking cessation in Brazil: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Brazil Survey. Public Health 2019;174:127-133. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2019.06.004 PMid:31362178

Ballal K, Kulkarni M, Agrawal A, Kamath A, Kumar M. Knowledge And Attitude Regarding Tobacco and Its Use Among Adolescent Students. Natl J Community Med. 2016;7(06):519-523. Available from: https://njcmindia.com/index.php/file/article/view/990

Reddy MM, Kanungo S, Naik BN, Kar SS. Willingness to quit tobacco smoking and its correlates among Indian smokers - Findings from Global Adult Tobacco Survey India, 2009-2010. J Family Med Prim Care. 2018 Nov-Dec;7(6):1353-1360. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_169_18 PMid:30613524 PMCid:PMC6293941

Chen L, Tao Z, Xu Q, Zhu Y, Ding S, Dong Y. Nicotine dependence, motivations, and intention to quit smoking among smoking cessation outpatients: A cross-sectional study. Tob Induc Dis. 2025 Jul 18;23. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18332/tid/205671 PMid:40689340 PMCid:PMC12273549

Park E, Zhou Y, Chen C, Chacko T, Mahoney M, Chang YP. Systematic review: interventions to quit tobacco products for young adults. BMC Public Health. 2023 June 26;23(1):1233. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15900-8 PMid:37365562 PMCid:PMC10294369

Chawla G, Kansal AP, Chopra V, Kumar N, Kaur K. Effect of literacy and family support on smoking cessation. CHEST 2014;146(4):968A. Available at: https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(16)50226-8/fulltext

Soulakova JN, Tang CY, Leonardo SA, Taliaferro LA. Motivational Benefits of Social Support and Behavioural Interventions for Smoking Cessation. J Smok Cessat. 2018 Dec;13(4):216-226. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/jsc.2017.26 PMid:30984294 PMCid:PMC6459678

Sun HQ, Guo S, Chen DF, Jiang ZN, Liu Y, Di XL, et al. Family support and employment as predictors of smoking cessation success: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of nicotine sublingual tablets in chinese smokers. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse. 2009;35(3):183-188. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00952990902839794 PMid:19462302

Georgiadou C, Lavdaniti M, Psychogiou M, Tzenalis A, Sgantzos M, Sapountzi-Krepia D. Factors affecting the decision to quit smoking of the participants of a hospital-based smoking cessation program in Greece. J Caring Sci. 2015 Mar 1;4(1):1-11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5681/jcs.2015.001 PMID: 25821754 PMCID: PMC4363647

Surani NS, Gupta PC, Fong TG, Pednekar MS, Quah AC, Bansal-Travers M. Intention to quit among Indian tobacco users: findings from International Tobacco Control Policy evaluation India pilot survey. Indian J Cancer. 2012 Oct-Dec;49(4):431-427. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-509X.107752 PMid:23442409