Persuasive smoking cessation messages based on Elaboration LikelihoodModel (ELM) from the perspective of medical students: a structured contentanalysis study

Background: Smoking is one of the biggest problems of the young generation and quitting itrequires careful and scientific planning. Several strategies have helped to reduce smoking amongyoung people. The effectiveness of strategies may decrease over time, which requires training innew approaches to smoking prevention and cessation. ELM is a theoretical approach that providesguidance on developing messages that meet these needs. Since health warning messages are one ofthe effective ways to change people's attitudes, so in this study, we decided to use the mentalprocessing model of beliefs as one of the effective approaches in persuasion, to analyze theprocess of persuasive messages to quit smoking in young people.Method: The present study is a qualitative content analysis study with the code of ethicsIR.HUMS.REC.۱۴۰۱.۱۴۶, which was conducted on ۲۸ students who were selected by purposivesampling. In order to collect data, structured and individual interviews were used, following theprinciples of conducting interviews and emphasizing ethical principles. The interviews wereconducted by setting a previous time and choosing the place according to the opinion of theparticipants, and the duration of the interview lasted from ۴۰ to ۶۰ minutes. Data analysis wasdone after each interview until data saturation was reached. Respecting the principle of diversity inthe interviews including gender, dormitory/non-dormitory, education levels and fields, smokersand non-smokers were taken into account. Internal validity was done by member control method,external validity was done by rich description of the data set, and reliability was done by themethod of organizing the data recording process.Results: ۲۸ students participated in this study. Their average age was ۲۲.۲ ± ۴.۶, ۵۷.۱۴% weremale and ۱۱ of the participants were smokers. The average duration of the interviews was ۴۸minutes. In this study, ۴ main issues of how to send the message, how to send it to the person,when to deliver the message, and the way/means of delivering the message were found. Out of the۱۲ extracted sub-classes, ۹ sub-classes were related to the peripheral path and ۳ sub-classes wererelated to the central path of the model.Conclusion: Smoking cessation messages require the time, skill and knowledge of experts to helprealize this complex behavioral phenomenon. The views of medical students who are related to thefuture of society's health can be very valuable

کلیدواژه ها:

Persuasive Smoking Cessation ، Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) ، StructuredContent Analysis Study.