Abstract:

It is stated that cigarette users potentially have a higher risk of adverse complications related to COVID-19. This study aimed to research the smoking behavior of Football Trainers (n=632) during the COVİD-19 pandemic. Participants completed an online survey, in which they reported on their smoking behavior, cigarette smokers’ quit intentions, and frequency of cigarette use during the COVİD-19 pandemic. More than half of smoker participants (68.2%) reported intentions to quit smoking due to COVID-19. (40.2%) of participants reported making a quit attempt. In contrast with these good results, more than half of smoker participants reported that they did not reduce their cigarette use since COVID-19 started (69.7%) and some of the respondents (17.4%) are increased their cigarette use since COVID-19 started. In the former smokers’ group (17,1%) of the respondents declared thoughts about starting to smoke again. Results showed that as the age increased, the desire and attempts of the participants to quit smoking increased. Married and Divorced participants stated that they wanted and tried to quit smoking more than Unmarried participants (p<0.05). Our findings suggest that, for some Football Trainers, COVID-19 may lead to reduce smoking and serve as a new opportunity to quit smoking.

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