ArticlePloS one2021
Are smokers scared by COVID-19 risk? How fear and comparative optimism influence smokers' intentions to take measures to quit smoking.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Smoking Consumption: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Trial
- Exploring the effects of cannabis health warnings on protective health intentions among US adults in legal recreational states.The International journal on drug policy · 2024Trial
- Examining reactions to smoking and COVID-19 risk messages: An experimental study with people who smoke.The International journal on drug policy · 2022Trial
- From Knowledge to Habits: Changes in COVID-19 Health Attitudes, Practices, and Sources of Information (HAPS) at Qatar University Post-Pandemic.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Change in prevalence of smoking during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic among middle-aged and older adults in Canada: a cohort study of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.BMJ public health · 2024Article
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Stress, Isolation, Smoking Behaviors, and Motivation to Quit in People with HIV Who Smoke.AIDS and behavior · 2023Article
- Smokeless Tobacco Use and Cessation Attempts during COVID-19 Lockdown: A Qualitative Study.Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2023Article
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on alcohol and tobacco consumption: Evidence from Peru.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2023Article
- When Cigarette Smoking Meets COVID-19: How the Two Types of Threat and Efficacy Perceptions Interactively Predict Danger Control and Fear Control Processes.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Changes in cigarette consumption and intention to quit in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in China.Tobacco induced diseases · 2023Article
- Effect of smoking-related COVID-19 risk messaging on smoking cessation in community smokers: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial.Tobacco induced diseases · 2023Article
- Israeli news media coverage of COVID-19 and use of cannabis and tobacco: A case study of inconsistent risk communication.The International journal on drug policy · 2022Article
- Smoking cessation in the elderly as a sign of susceptibility to symptomatic COVID-19 reinfection in the United States.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Analysis of tobacco consumption, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru.Tobacco induced diseases · 2022Article
- Interest in Online Tobacco Cessation Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India- insights from Google Trends.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social MedicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Research suggests that smoking may compound the risk of serious health problems to smokers who contract COVID-19. This study examines whether and how exposure to news stories reporting the severe COVID-19 risk to smokers may influence smokers' emotional responses (fear, anxiety, and sadness) and intentions to take measures to quit smoking. Current smokers in the US participated in an online experiment (N = 495) and were randomized to read smoking risk news stories or news stories reporting the combined risk of smoking and COVID-19. We found that combined risk news stories lead to participants feeling more fearful and sadder than when they viewed smoking risk news stories (M = 5.74; SD = 2.57 vs. M = 5.20; SD = 2.74; p < .05). Fear fully mediated the effect of news exposure on intentions to take measures to quit smoking (ß = .09; SE = 05; 95% CI [.010, .200]). Moreover, moderated-mediation analyses revealed that the mediating effect of fear was conditioned on the levels of comparative optimism, such that the association between fear and intentions to take measures to quit smoking was only significant among smokers whose comparative optimism was at the mean score (ß = .16; SE = 05; 95% CI [.071, .250]), and for those whose comparative optimism was high (ß = .27; SE = .06; 95% CI [.146, .395]). These results suggest that fear of the pandemic and optimism might play important roles in predicting and explaining the association between exposure to news stories and intentions to take measures to quit smoking. Messages about heightened risk of COVID-19 complications for smokers that increase fear might be an effective strategy to motivate smokers to quit. Such messages should be used to turn the adversity of COVID-19 pandemic into an intervention opportunity to reduce tobacco-related disease.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.