Employee characteristics and health belief variables related to smoking cessation engagement attitudes.

BACKGROUND: Workplace smoking cessation programs can effectively assist employees to quit smoking. However, little is known about employees' attitudes towards engagement in workplace smoking cessation programs.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to address the limited understanding of the interaction between employee characteristics and their health beliefs toward engaging in a workplace smoking cessation program.

METHODS: Self-report data was collected from 897 employees of a mining company operating in two remote towns in Australia. The majority of participants were male (73%), the mean age was 36.9 years (SD = 11.5). Chi square tests of independence were used to analyze relationships between employee characteristics and smoking cessation engagement attitudes. Engagement attitudes included: A desire to cease smoking; desire for assistance with the smoking cessation process; and intention to participate in a workplace smoking intervention.

RESULTS: The findings from this study indicated that attitudes towards engagement in smoking cessation programs varied for mining employees according to gender, age, perceived severity, perceived self-efficacy, and stage of readiness to change.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide insights that health promotion practitioners may apply to inform the design and marketing of effective workplace smoking cessation programs for similar employees.