The estimated influence of assumed physicians’ advice for tobacco smoking cessation among current smokers in Shanghai, China: A cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Evidence indicates that physicians’ smoking cessation advice is significant for tobacco control, which is an impetus to encourage smoking cessation among smokers, but the estimated influence of physicians’ smoking cessation advice on smokers’ intention to quit is limited in Shanghai, China. METHODS: We enrolled 1104 participants who were current smokers in the SJ (Songjiang) and FX (Fengxian) districts in Shanghai in 2021. An electronic questionnaire was used to collect data and SAS 9.4 was used for data analysis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to estimate the influence of the assumed physicians’ advice for smoking cessation on current smokers’ smoking cessation plan. RESULTS: A total of 1104 participants provided information of which 914 were male smokers (82.8%) and 190 (17.2%) were female smokers. Multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that female smokers (OR=2.47; 95% CI: 1.66–3.68), smokers with at least 1 type of non-communicable disease (OR=2.09; 95% CI: 1.42–3.07), smoking intensity <20 cigarettes/day (OR=1.64; 95% CI: 1.22–2.17), with personal tobacco burden less than 20% (OR=1.52; 95% CI: 1.10–2.13), exposed to secondhand smoke (OR=1.99; 95% CI:1.44–2.76), and previous smoking cessation attempt (OR=4.43; 95% CI: 3.23–6.08), were more likely to report an intent to quit smoking. Moreover, approximately 50% of participants without a plan to quit in a year had also reported their intention to quit smoking with the presumption that the physicians would advise them to quit, irrespective of their sex, age, NCD status and secondhand tobacco smoke exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians’ cessation advice could promote smokers to consider stopping smoking. The reported cessation intention was higher among female smokers, and smokers with NCD, lower smoking intensity and burden, with smoking cessation attempts, all of which could be incorporated into the implementation of tobacco control measures in the future in Shanghai.