Depression and smoking cessation: The role of motivation and self-efficacy

The aim of this paper is to examine whether depression, assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory, is related to smoking cessation motivation and self-efficacy. In a population sample of 1,547 Finnish men and 1,856 Finnish women, aged between 25-64 years, there were 34% male and 21% female current smokers. The current smokers had higher mean depression scores than former or never smokers. The higher depression scores were related to greater motivation to quit smoking among female smokers [OR = 1.51 (1.15-1.97)]. In addition, higher depression scores were related to lower smoking cessation self-efficacy, especially among male smokers [OR = .63 (.45-.90)]. Depression scores were not related to whether a smoker had had previous cessation attempts. Our results suggest that depression is related to lower smoking cessation self-efficacy while smokers with higher depression scores seem to be more motivated to quit smoking. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.