Worry about COVID-19 in relation to cognitive-affective smoking processes among daily adult combustible cigarette smokers.

Worry about COVID-19 in relation to cognitive-affective smoking processes among daily adult combustible cigarette smokers. Cogn Behav Ther. 2021 Jan 29;:1-15 Authors: Shepherd JM, Fogle B, Garey L, Viana AG, Zvolensky MJ Abstract Cigarette smoking is a known risk factor for severe disease and death from respiratory infection. Initial data suggest that smoking is a risk factor for COVID-19 symptom severity. Exposure to increased pandemic-related stress and subsequent worry about COVID-19 may amplify the desire to smoke to down-regulate distress. The present investigation sought to test this conceptual model by evaluating worry about COVID-19 in relation to COVID-19 coping motives for smoking, perceived barriers for smoking cessation, and smoking abstinence expectancies. Participants were 219 daily combustible cigarette smokers (55.70% female, Mage = 41.43 years, SD = 11.06). Six separate, two-step hierarchical linear regression models were conducted for each of the criterion variables. As expected, worry about COVID-19 was significantly and positively related to COVID-19 coping motives for smoking and perceived barriers for smoking cessation. Worry about COVID-19 also was a positively significant predictor of smoking abstinence expectancies of negative mood, somatic symptoms, and harmful consequences, but not positive consequences. The present study provides novel empirical evidence that worry about COVID-19 is related to key cog...
Source: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Cogn Behav Ther Source Type: research