A Qualitative Inquiry into Smoking Cessation: Lessons Learnedfrom Smokers Public

Abstract

A Qualitative Inquiry into Smoking Cessation: Lessons Learned from Smokers

By Aukje Kluge

This project explores why persistent smokers have failed to quit smoking despite the behavioral and pharmacological interventions that are available. Beginning with an historical overview of how cigarettes became popular in the United States, this dissertation further investigates the shift from behaviorally based therapies to pharmacological treatments.

Initially smoking was understood as a morally reprehensible behavior in need of modification. With the ever increasing knowledge of nicotine's effects on the smoker's brain, researchers began to understand and treat smoking as a nicotine dependence disorder. However, long-term successful treatment rates remain modest. The question of why cessation tools have overwhelmingly failed smokers stands at the forefront of the inquiry.

This dissertation adds an important component to smoking cessation research. Drawing on qualitative data collected for the Persistent Smokers Project, the analysis of the interviews reveals that there are three recurring themes associated with quitting smoking. First, interviewees provide important information on cessation motivators. Second, participants in the study focus on smoking cessation barriers that keep them from initiating a quit attempt. Third, smokers identify relapse triggers that end a period of smoking abstinence. Overall, these interviewees confirm much of what is already known in the research literature. However, the analysis also adds important knowledge in all three cessation areas and is able to offer an in-depth perspective of smokers' experiences with cessation. The qualitative findings are used to make recommendations for public health practices and research.

Table of Contents

Introduction .............................................................................................. 1

Chapter I: A History of Cigarette Smoking ...................................................... 10

Humble Beginnings - The Era of Hand-Rolled Cigarettes ............................ 11 Buck and the Bonsack Machine - The Industrialization and Popularization of

Cigarettes ....................................................................................... 22

World War I (1914-1918) and the Birth of Advertisement ......................... 33 The Depression, World War II (1939-1945), and Some Puzzling Medical

Observations ................................................................................... 43 The Plot Thickens -- The Causal Challenge and the Response from the

Industry ......................................................................................... 51

Chapter II: A Historical Analysis of Smoking Cessation Strategies ...................... 56

Gentian Roots and Silver Nitrate - Before the Establishment of the Lung

Cancer- Smoking Link ......................................................................... 57 How Knowing the Etiology of Lung Cancer Affected Smoking Research ........ 66 Electroshock and Lobeline - Early Attempts at Breaking the Smoking Habit .. 73 Smoking Cessation Research Is Coming of Age -- The 1970s ..................... 83 Pharmacological Treatment Therapies - - A Breakthrough in Cessation? ...... 92

Chapter III: Research Methodologies ............................................................ 113

Research Questions .......................................................................... 118 Establishing the Cessation Groups ....................................................... 119 Sample and Data Collection ................................................................ 119

Recruitment strategies .............................................................. 119 Eligibility and screening process ................................................... 121 Interview ................................................................................ 122 Interview guide ........................................................................ 124 Themes of interest ................................................................... 124 Data management .................................................................... 124

Data Analysis.................................................................................... 125 Coding Tree ..................................................................................... 126 Potential Validity Concerns .................................................................. 130

Credibility and reflexivity ............................................................ 132

Potential Limitations .......................................................................... 133

Chapter IV: Qualitative Inquiry ..................................................................... 134

Participants ...................................................................................... 134 Themes ........................................................................................... 135 Quitting Experiences .......................................................................... 135 Barriers to Quitting ............................................................................ 160 Relapse ............................................................................................ 171

Chapter V: Discussion of Qualitative Findings and Recommendations .................... 191

The Past and the Future of Smoking Cessation Research ........................... 215 Recommendations for Public Health Practice ........................................... 218

Motivators and self-exempting beliefs ............................................ 218 Barriers to quitting ..................................................................... 220 Triggers to relapse ..................................................................... 220

References ................................................................................................ 222

Footnotes ................................................................................................. 265

About this Dissertation

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health
Mot-clé	qualitative research history of cigarettes smoking cessation
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Kushner, Howard I, Emory University
Committee Members	Neill, Darryl B, Emory University Sterk, Claire E, Emory University

Dernière modification

Primary PDF

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions
	A Qualitative Inquiry into Smoking Cessation: Lessons Learnedfrom Smokers ()	2018-08-28 13:11:00 -0400	Press to Select an action Download

Supplemental Files

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Actions