Factors associated with quit attempt and successful quitting among adults who smoke tobacco in Ethiopia: Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2016

INTRODUCTION: Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the world. Identification of factors associated with quit attempts and successful quitting can help strengthen tobacco cessation programs. In Ethiopia, no prior study of such factors exists. Our aim was to identify factors associated with quit attempts and successful quitting among adults who smoke tobacco in Ethiopia. METHODS: We used the Ethiopian 2016 Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) data (n=10150). GATS is a nationally representative household survey that collects data on sociodemographic and tobacco-related characteristics. We calculated prevalence of reported past 12 months quit attempts and successful quitting and performed logistic regression to obtain prevalence ratios with 95% confidence intervals. A p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Overall 42.0% of people who smoked tobacco made a quit attempt. Men were more likely (APR=3.9; 95% CI: 1.4–10.7) to make a quit attempt compared to women but were less likely to successfully quit (APR=0.6; 95% CI: 0.3–0.9). Those aware of the health harms of tobacco were 2.5 (95% CI: 1.1–5.5) and 3.9 (95% CI: 1.8–8.5) times as likely to make a quit attempt and successfully quit, respectively, than those unaware. Receiving healthcare provider advice to quit was not associated with quit attempts. CONCLUSIONS: More than 4 in 10 people smoking tobacco in Ethiopia are making attempts to quit. Receipt of healthcare provider advice to quit is not yet associated with quit attempts in Ethiopia; however, awareness of the health harms of tobacco is a powerful predictor of quit attempt and success in quitting. Improved access to cessation support and expanded awareness of the health harms of tobacco are urgently needed to enhance both quit attempts and success across Ethiopia.