The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: This study will explore the relationship between measures of the social norms in California and smoking behavior.

Methods: Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were fitted to obtain latent variables and factor scores using combined California Adult Tobacco Study data from 1997-2004 (n=33,907). The three latent variables constructed were: government regulation and protection, secondhand smoke (SHS), and tobacco industry (TI) manipulation. Logistic regressions were fitted to measure the relationships between the factor scores and smoking behaviors adjusting for age, gender, race, social economical status.

Results: People who have strong positive SHS attitudes are almost 4 times less likely to smoke than those who have weak SHS attitudes; however, if they smoke, are not more likely to make quit attempts or have quit intentions. People with strong positive attitudes on government protection and regulation are not less likely to smoke but smokers are 2 times more likely to have made a recent quit attempt and 2 times more likely to have quit intentions. People who have strong positive TI Manipulation beliefs are 2 times less likely to smoke. While smokers are about 2 times more likely to have quit intentions with strong positive TI Manipulation beliefs, there is no difference for recent quit attempts.

Conclusions: This may imply that SHS is core tenant of a comprehensive tobacco control program for nonsmokers, while a complex mixture of TI manipulation and government protection and regulation messages are relevant for smokers.