The Potential Effectiveness of COVID-Related Smoking Cessation Messages in Three Countries

Introduction: Health authorities are advising smokers to quit to reduce their COVID-related risk. The types of messages that may be effective in alerting smokers to this risk and encouraging a quit attempt are unknown. The aim of this study was to test a series of messages to identify potentially effective communication approaches.

Methods: An online survey was completed by 1509 smokers across three countries (Australia: n = 604; New Zealand: n = 304; United Kingdom: n = 601) in April-May 2020. Respondents were randomly assigned to view just one of four quit messages, two of which explicitly referred to the coronavirus, one referred to risk of chest infection, and one encouraged cessation for financial reasons. Outcome variables included quit intentions, further information seeking, message perceptions, and health and financial concerns.

Results: All four messages were associated with significant differences in the proportions of respondents intending to quit within the following 2 wk (increase range: 11%-34%) and with substantial proportions of respondents electing to access additional information (range: 37%-50%). The differences in intentions were significantly larger for the two health-related messages that specifically mentioned the coronavirus. All messages were perceived favorably in terms of acceptability, believability, effectiveness, and personal relevance. Negligible differences in health and financial concerns were observed.

Conclusions: Smokers in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom appear likely to be receptive to messages about their COVID-related risk. Such messages have the potential to increase quit intentions and prompt information-seeking behaviors.

Implications: The COVID-19 pandemic represents an opportunity to encourage smokers to quit to reduce both their COVID-related risks and their risks of a broad range of noncommunicable diseases.