Self-efficacy and smoking reduction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

Bandura's social cognitive theory (SCT) was applied to an analysis of smoking reduction among individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Self-efficacy was hypothesized to be the most important contributor, of all SCT variables, to effective smoking self-change. Consistent with the SCT perspective, outcome expectations, motivation to stop smoking, and the availability of a repertoire of behavioral stop-smoking techniques were postulated to contribute only via their interactions with self-efficacy. A standardized interview was administered to 45 COPD patients who currently smoked. Smoking levels were measured simultaneously with the SCT predictors and were reassessed at I- and 3-month post-tests. As hypothesized, hierarchical multiple regression analyses, controlling for age, sex, initial smoking levels, and number of years as a smoker, indicated that perceived self-efficacy was the only significant SCT predictor of reduced smoking at the 1- and 3-month post-tests. Also as predicted, each of the ‘non-efficacy’ SCT variables contributed to smoking reductions via their interactions with self-efficacy but not independently of it.