Differences in quit attempts, Successful quits, Methods, and Motivations in a Longitudinal Cohort of adult Tobacco Users by Sexual Orientation.

Introduction:
This text provides an analysis of the smoking cessation behaviors and motivations of sexual minority (SM) and heterosexual adult tobacco users. The study aims to describe smoking cessation behaviors, including quit attempts, methods, and motivations, in a longitudinal cohort of adult tobacco users by sexual orientation. additionally, the text compares demographic and tobacco-related characteristics by sexual orientation and in participants reporting successful quits versus 24-hour quit attempts.

Key Points:

* The study included tobacco users enrolled in the Tobacco User adult Cohort (TUaC) study during 2014-2015 who completed follow-up through 2018-2019.
* Participants completed six face-to-face interviews and two phone interviews.
* The study assessed sexual orientation with questions used in the Population assessment of Tobacco and health Wave 1.
* quit attempts were reported at all interviews and defined as at least one 24-hour period of abstinence from all tobacco for purposes of quitting since last interview.
* Successful quits were reported at all interviews and defined as 7-day point prevalence abstinence from all tobacco at interview.
* The study found no statistically significant differences in quit behaviors by sexual orientation in the full or gender-stratified samples.
* Most participants used nicotine replacement therapy as a quit method.
* Personal health and family concerns were universal motivations to quit.

Main Message:
The study found few differences between heterosexual and SM tobacco users in quit behaviors. Over 4 years, a majority of both SM and heterosexual tobacco users attempted to quit, with over a third making repeated quit attempts. Nicotine replacement therapy and tobacco product substitution were mostly used during quit attempts. Personal health and family concerns were universal motivations to quit, yet SM women also cited physical fitness as a primary motivation. Tobacco users reporting that a household member stopped smoking were more likely to successfully quit. More SM than heterosexual men reported that a coworker quit smoking. These findings suggest that targeted interventions and messages that leverage online quit programs, health messages, and family members may help both SM and heterosexual tobacco users successfully quit.

Patterson JG, hinton a, Cooper SE, Wewers ME. Differences in quit attempts, Successful quits, Methods, and Motivations in a Longitudinal Cohort of adult Tobacco Users by Sexual Orientation. Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. 2021;23(11):1952-1957. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntab116