| Popis: |
Despite the negative effects of smoking on lung functioning and overall health, smoking is more prevalent among individuals with asthma compared to those without. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend past work on asthma and smoking by examining the unique predictive ability of asthma diagnosis in terms of smoking behavior and smoking-related cognitive processes among adult daily smokers. Participants were 251 regular daily smokers: 125 smokers with self-reported, physician-diagnosed asthma (54% male; Mage = 37.66 years, SD = 12.12) and 126 smokers without asthma (70.4% male; Mage = 36.51 years, SD = 13.05) who completed a battery of self-report measures. Partially consistent with hypotheses, after controlling for gender, race, number of medical problems, and alcohol consumption, asthma diagnosis was a significant predictor of age of regular smoking onset (1.9% unique variance), number of quit attempts (2.5% unique variance), and self-control reasons for quitting (2.6% unique variance). Results for nicotine dependence and daily smoking rate approached significance. Contrary to prediction, asthma diagnosis did not significantly predict smoking motives, reasons for quitting related to health concerns, or barriers to cessation. The primary implication of the present findings is that while there are few differences between smokers with and without asthma in terms of smoking behaviors and smoking-related cognitive processes, the differences that do exist suggest that current smoking cessation interventions may not be as effective for smokers with asthma and targeted, specialized interventions need to be developed. |
