The Potential Effect of Islamic-based Smoking Cessation program (ISCP) for young adults: a mixed method study [EMBARGOED]

Abstract

Smoking related diseases contributes to a huge sum of economic and physiological burden to Malaysia. Although there are a number of smoking cessation interventions available in Malaysia, most of these smoking cessation programmes were focusing mainly on pharmacotherapy or the behavioural therapy, or both leaving the religious aspects behind. Since religiosity plays an important role in regulating one’s health behaviour, it is crucial to integrate religiosity aspects into smoking cessation intervention. In addition, smoking cessation programmes rarely target the young adult population, which primarily consists of undergraduate university students. Objective: The study aimed to develop and evaluate the effects of the Islamic-based smoking cessation programme (ISCP) among male Muslim undergraduate smokers. Method: This study applied a sequential explanatory mixed-method study design with Intervention Mapping (IM) Protocol for the development of the ISCP module. The first phase was the prevalence study which was conducted as a need assessment before embarking into the development of the ISCP targeting undergraduate smokers, followed by the intervention study, and a semi-structured interview of the participants to explore their experiences in regards to the ISCP. Results: The prevalence study (N = 552) revealed that the predicting factors for smoking were study programme (p-value < 0.05), and the religiosity level (p-value < 0.05). For the intervention study (N = 50), overall, there was a significant change (p-value < 0.05) in the quit rates, and the number keep on improving over time; from 48% at three-month follow-up to 72% at six-month follow-up. The results also showed a significant improvement with large effect size in the attitude (p < 0.001, r = 0.58), and practice (p < 0.001, r = 0.55) of the participants pre and post-intervention. Three themes have been identified through the in-depth interviews (N = 10); 1) Strengths of the programme, 2) Strategies to quit smoking, and 3) Reflecting on the smoking cessation barriers. Conclusion: The study suggests that ISCP has a big influence on knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) related to smoking. It also increases the religiosity level and improve the smoking status among young adult smokers.