Risk perception and motivation to quit smoking: a partial test of the Health Action Process Approach

The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) posits a distinction between pre-intentional motivation processes and a post-intentional volition process that leads to the actual behavior change. For smoking cessation, the HAPA predicts that increased risk perceptions would foster a decision to quit smoking. From a cross-sectional perspective, the HAPA predicts that those who do not intend to quit (non-intenders) should have lower risk perceptions than those who do intend to quit (intenders).

Adult smokers participated in a cross-sectional survey. Multiple measures of motivation to quit smoking and risk perceptions for smoking were assessed. ANOVA and contrast analysis were employed for data analysis.

The results were generally supportive of the HAPA. Non-intenders had systematically lower risk perceptions compared to intenders. Most of these findings were statistically significant.

The results demonstrated that risk perceptions distinguish non-intenders from intenders. These results suggest that smokers low in motivation to quit could benefit from information and reminders about the serious health problems caused by smoking.