Background

Social cohesion, the self-reported trust and connectedness between neighbors, may affect health behaviors via psychosocial mechanisms.

Purpose

Relations between individual perceptions of social cohesion and smoking cessation were examined among 397 Black treatment-seeking smokers.

Methods

Continuation ratio logit models examined the relation of social cohesion and biochemically-verified continuous smoking abstinence through 6 months post-quit. Indirect effects were examined in single mediator models using a nonparametric bootstrapping procedure. All analyses controlled for sociodemographics, tobacco dependence, and treatment.

Results

The total effect of social cohesion on continuous abstinence was non-significant (β=.05, p=.10). However, social cohesion was associated with social support, positive affect negative affect, and stress, which, in turn, were each associated with abstinence in adjusted models (ps<.05).

Conclusions

Results suggest that social cohesion may facilitate smoking cessation among Black smokers through desirable effects on psychosocial mechanisms that can result from living in a community with strong interpersonal connections.

CDC Public Access

CA016672/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
K01 CA157689/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
K01DP001120/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States
P30 CA016672/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
P60 MD003422/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States
P60MD003422/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States
R01 CA094826/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
R01CA094826/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
R25 CA057730/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States
R25CA57730/CA/NCI NIH HHS/United States