Smoking Cessation Education Program Among Automobile Factory Workers: An Interventional Study from Bam, Iran

Smoking is a serious, highly prevalent health problem worldwide. This paper aimed to evaluate the effects of an educational program on quitting smoking among automobile workers in Bam, Iran.

In this interventional study, one hundred male automobile workers were randomly allocated to the intervention (N = 50) and control group (N = 50) at automobile manufacturing factory in Bam, Iran in 2017. Just the intervention group participated in an educational program. The short form of Transtheoretical Model (TTM) questionnaire and also Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) were used.

Totally 50 participants in each group of the intervention (mean age = 30.90 ± 4.22) and control (mean age = 31.44 ± 3.55) groups completed the study. The mean scores for the decisional-balance in the control versus intervention group, immediately after the intervention, 3, and 6-month follow-up were 22.73 ± 2.28 vs. 18.68 ± 2.20, 21.96 ± 2.19 vs. 18.20 ± 2.08, and 22.18 ± 2.40 vs. 18.62 ± 1.97, respectively. The mean scores in the control versus intervention group for temptation were 32.30 ± 5.10 vs. 20.72 ± 3.01, 31.88 ± 5.09 vs. 24.04 ± 3.05, and 32.58 ± 4.72 vs. 24.08 ± 2.65, respectively; and for the processes of change were 70.96 ± 6.27 vs. 58.68 ± 5.89, 71.50 ± 6.88 vs. 60.48 ± 6.37, and 72.30 ± 6.66 vs. 63.02 ± 6.38, respectively. The mean scores of change in the intervention group compared to the control group at 6 months after the intervention compared to baseline were significant in terms of decisional balance (3.96 vs. -0.42; P < 0.001); situational temptation (-9.7 vs. -1.34, P < 0.001), and process of change (-6.22 vs. 1.64, P < 0.001).

This study revealed that the designed educational program could be effective in quitting smoking among automobile factory workers through decreasing temptation and increasing decisional balance and process of change.