Why It Is Difficult for Military Personnel to Quit Smoking: From the Perspective of Compensatory Health Beliefs.

Chor-Sum Au-Yeung,Ren-Fang Chao,Li-Yun Hsu

doi:10.3390/ijerph182212261

Chor-Sum Au-Yeung, Ren-Fang Chao + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182212261

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Abstract

Compensatory health beliefs are barriers to healthy behavior. In an effort to understand how the prevalence of these beliefs can be reduced in individuals, 376 valid questionnaires were collected from combat troops in Taiwan. The collected data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. It was found that positive attitudes towards smoking cessation had significant negative effects on compensatory health beliefs, while negative attitudes towards smoking cessation significantly enhanced the level of compensatory health beliefs. The motivation for smoking cessation was also found to reinforce the negative effect of positive attitudes towards compensatory health beliefs, while it did not have any significant effect on the relationship between negative attitudes and compensatory health beliefs. Three subconstructs of compensatory health beliefs (exercise, eating habits, and amount of smoking) were found to have simultaneous effects for military personnel. Finally, this study explored the causes of the above-mentioned phenomena, and measures that could reduce the prevalence of compensatory health beliefs were suggested.

Highlights

The results of this study show that positive attitudes (PAs) towards smoking cessation have a significant negative effect on the three subconstructs of compensatory health beliefs (CHBs) (CE, eating habits (EH), and amount of smoking (AS)), while negative attitude (NA) have a significant positive effect on these subconstructs
These results indicate that those military personnel with more PAs towards smoking cessation are less likely to try to make up for the harms of smoking through CHBs
Those military personnel with more NAs towards smoking cessation believed that corrective actions could compensate for the disadvantages of smoking

Summary

Objectives

Based on the importance of smoking cessation for military personnel and the lack of understanding surrounding smoking cessation, the purpose of this study was to explore the degree of the influence of the attitude towards smoking cessation. This study aimed to find the factors that constitute CHBs from a psychological level, so as to reduce CHBs, and even prevent their occurrence

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Discussion

Conclusion