Persuasive message criteria for smoking cessation from the perspective ofmedical students: a structured content analysis study

Background: Smoking is one of the biggest threats to health. The prevalence of smoking amongyoung people, especially medical students, is increasing despite the awareness of its harms.Quitting smoking is a very complex behavior and is influenced by various individual, social andcultural factors. Certainly, determining environmental factors and warning and persuasivemessages to quit smoking requires careful and scientific planning. One of the best ways todetermine the hidden angles of behavior are qualitative studies, which provide the ability todiscover the roots and causes of behavior through in-depth interviews, so the researchers decidedto investigate the criterion of the persuasive message of quitting smoking in students.Methods: This qualitative study is a structured content analysis with the code of ethicsIR.HUMS.REC.۱۴۰۱.۱۴۶. which took place in ۱۴۰۱ at Bandar Abbas Nursing-Midwifery College.The research population consisted of Hormozgan medical science students who were selected bypurposive sampling method and based on the study entry criteria including things such as studyingin medical sciences, willingness to participate in the interview and completing the consent form toparticipate in the research. Sampling continued until data saturation. Data analysis was done aftereach interview until data saturation was achieved. Ethical considerations such as the right towithdraw at each stage of the study, confidentiality of information and not mentioning the namesof individuals were respected. Respecting the principle of diversity in the interviews includinggender, dormitory/non-dormitory, education levels and fields, smokers and non-smokers weretaken into account. Internal validity was done by member control method, external validity wasdone by rich description of the data set, and reliability was done by the method of organizing thedata 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 topics were found: how to send a message (۵ sub-categories), how tosend it to a person (۲ sub-categories), when to deliver the message (۲ sub-categories), and theway/means of delivering the message (۳ sub-categories).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 Message ، Smoking Cessation ، Content Analysis