Readiness of older adults to stop smoking in a televised intervention

Smokers aged 60 and older who enrolled in a televised smoking cessation program were compared with older smokers in the target population, using data from telephone interviews. Multiple logistic regressions identified factors that differentiated older smokers at various stages of readiness to quit. Within the target population, smokers planning to quit someday (N = 238) were more likely to have had greater concern about health effects of smoking and perceived a stronger desire by others for them to quit than smokers with no such plan (N = 127). Compared with older smokers in the target population who were planning to quit someday, program registrants (N = 95) perceived greater severity of lung cancer, had greater concern about the health effects of smoking, perceived greater reduction of lung cancer risk from quitting, and had more determination to quit. These findings indicate important factors according to the stage in the smoking cessation process that must be considered when intervening with older smokers.