Predictors of past quit attempts and duration of abstinence among cigarette smokers

Despite the widespread awareness of the harms of smoking, millions continue to smoke around the world partly due to the difficulty it takes to quit smoking. Identifying the factors associated with making quit attempts is an essential pillar to reach successful quitting. The purpose of this study is to assess the factors associated with the past quit attempts and their past length of abstinence in a Lebanese sample of cigarette smokers. This study was conducted between March 2014 and March 2015, involving 382 patients randomly chosen from 5 outpatient clinics in 5 hospitals in Lebanon. A standardized questionnaire was completed including socio-demographic characteristics, smoking behavior, chronic respiratory symptoms, Fagerstrom scale, Mondor scale, packaging perception, quitting behavior and readiness to quit ladder. Smokers who have chronic allergies (ORa=2.45, p=0.03), those who have ever stopped smoking for at least one month due to the warnings implemented on the packages (ORa=4.6, p