Socioeconomic Status, Social Context, and Smoking Lapse During a Quit Attempt: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Background Low socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to failure to quit smoking. Health inequity models suggest that low SES smokers experience barriers to quitting in part due to greater exposure to pro-smoking social contexts. Purpose The current study examined longitudinal associations among socioeconomic status, pro-smoking social context factors (i.e., exposure to other smokers, places where smoking was allowed), cigarette availability, and smoking lapse during a quit attempt. Methods Ecological momentary assessments (EMA) were gathered from a multiethnic sample of 365 smokers engaged in a quit attempt. A multilevel structural equation model estimated a latent variable for SES indicated by income, education, health insurance, and employment, associations among EMAs for pro-smoking social contexts and cigarette availability, and indirect effects of SES through, pro-smoking social contexts and cigarette availability to subsequent smoking lapse. Results Lower SES scores were associated with a higher likelihood of smoking lapse. Decomposition of the path from SES to smoking lapse into indirect effects showed significant paths through exposure to places where smoking is allowed and cigarette availability. Additionally, significant serial indirect paths from SES through both exposure to other smokers and places where smoking was allowed, in turn, through cigarette availability, and, ultimately, to smoking lapse were noted. Conclusions Consistent with models positing that SES influences health behaviors via contextual factors, the current study demonstrated that low SES smokers attempting to quit experienced greater pro-smoking social contexts that affected subsequent risk for lapse.