Couples' reports of support for smoking cessation predicting women's late pregnancy cessation

Although social support has been linked to smoking cessation, no studies have examined whether social support predicts women's late pregnancy cessation. Further, few have included reports from both support recipients and providers.

Longitudinal.

Pregnant couples (n = 394) reported support for cessation in early (13-20 weeks) and late (28 weeks) pregnancy.

Different measures of couples' support were tested for predicting women's late pregnancy, cessation. Measures of couples' support that were calculated included: summative (added women's and male partners' support scores, possible range 2-10), difference (subtracted the lower score from the higher, possible range 0-4), strong link (used higher positive or lower negative score, possible range 1-5), weak link (lower positive or higher negative score, possible range 1-5), and female and male reports alone (possible ranges 1-5). Covariate-adjusted odds ratios for the association of these various measures of couples' support with women's late pregnancy cessation were calculated.

Of the 12 scores (6 positive, 6 negative), only summative (p = .03) and weak link (p = .05) for positive support predicted women's quitting.

Neither women's nor male partners' reports alone predicted women's cessation; only when both scores were considered, either by adding the scores or by taking the lower score, was the positive support score predictive. Future studies of social support should include support recipients' and providers' perspectives.