Assessment of Readiness to quit smoking behaviour among smokers in Chennai,Tamil Nadu

Background : In the stages of the change model for smoking cessation, "willingness to quit" forms the starting point.The impact of the increasing burden of smoking among low and middle- income countries is well established. To determine the willingness to quit smoking among and quit attempts among smokers in Chennai,Tamil Nadu Methods:A validated pre-tested Questionnaire was used to assess the willingness to quit. Responses were tabulated in Microsoft Excel and statistical analysis was done using SPSS version 27.0 and chi square tests. Results: From the present study , it was found that 42.3% of the smokers belong to the pre contemplation stage, 17.5% of them belong to the contemplation stage , whereas 40.1% of them were ready to quit smoking. The p value for this was 0.049 (<0.05) and hence Statistically significant. Conclusion: From this study we can conclude that the majority of the smoker population have a high readiness to quit smoking. Smoking is a major public health problem. Continued effort to control and eliminate this abuse is a medical necessity.Hence,more workshops on the importance of smoking cessation should be conducted.