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Mental Health and Readiness to Change Smoking Behavior in Daily Smoking Primary Care Patients

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Abstract

Purpose

We examined the association between daily smokers’ mental health according to the five-item Mental Health Inventory and the core constructs of the transtheoretical model (TTM): stage of change, processes of change, smoking cessation self-efficacy, and decisional balance.

Method

Questionnaire data from 1,334 daily smoking primary care patients were used for multinomial logistic, linear, and ordinal logistic regression analyses controlling for effects of sociodemographic characteristics.

Results

Smokers with lower levels of mental health had increased odds to contemplate quitting within the next 6 months compared to not intending to quit at all. In addition, they reported an elevated use of change processes as well as an enhanced endorsement of positive and negative aspects of nonsmoking. However, in a subsample analysis performed on smokers in contemplation stage, low mental health was related to lower self-efficacy expectancies in negative affect situations.

Conclusion

Mental health does not appear to constitute a precondition for readiness to change smoking behavior in daily smokers. Nonetheless, smokers with low mental health might require support to deal with negative affect situations.

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Acknowledgments

The “Proactive interventions for smoking cessation in General medical Practices” (Pro GP) project is part of the German research network EARLINT (early substance use intervention) and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (grant no. 01EB0120, 01EB0420), the Social Ministry of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (grant no. IX311a 406.68.43.05), and the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, grant no. JO150/6-1). We would like to thank all patients, general practitioners and their assistants who participated at our study. We also appreciate for the contributions to data collection made by study nurses, interviewers, and computer specialists.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Epidemiology and Social Medicine, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University, Walther-Rathenau-Straße 48, 17487, Greifswald, Germany

    Gudrun Schorr, Sabina Ulbricht, Jeannette Rüge, Ulrich John & Christian Meyer

  2. Institute for Therapy Research, Munich, Germany

    Sebastian E. Baumeister

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

    Janina Grothues & Hans-Jürgen Rumpf

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  1. Gudrun Schorr
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  2. Sabina Ulbricht
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  3. Sebastian E. Baumeister
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Correspondence to Gudrun Schorr.

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Schorr, G., Ulbricht, S., Baumeister, S.E. et al. Mental Health and Readiness to Change Smoking Behavior in Daily Smoking Primary Care Patients. Int.J. Behav. Med. 16, 347–354 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-008-9012-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-008-9012-6

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