Smokers’ Perception of Their Health Status and Health-Seeking Behaviour: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Background: Smoking has been primarily studied as a public health problem involving mapping continued smoking patterns and interventions designed to decrease smoking prevalence. This paper aims to discuss the available literature on smokers’ perception on their health, the smokers’ health-seeking behaviour and factors influence the smokers’ continuity in smoking. Method: Review literature conducted by using databases such as Science Direct, Sage Journals, Wiley, PubMed, and Scopus with the keywords smoking, health perception, health seeking behavior, health status, and health screening. Result: Eighteen articles were reviewed, selected, and summarized. These include six qualitative studies, ten quantitative studies, and two randomized control studies. Findings showed that smokers underestimate the effects of smoking and overestimate their ability to quit before becoming addicted. Thus, communication of health risk must be in line with smokers’ perception of health risks which they tend to minimize and ignore. Smokers’ perceived smoking bring benefits and they could retain control over their actions but could not easily stop having frequent desires to smoke. Also, healthcare providers should develop passion, equipped with expected skills and aid while intervene smokers’, which might increase their motivation to quit smoking. Conclusion: Further study perhaps could bring a better understanding on the factors contribute to smokers’ judgment in making decisions whether to continue or stop smoking and how these factors influence their actions. Smoking rates might be reduced if smokers understood the risks of smoking, which were more accurate as evidenced by a medical check-up and held to the beliefs on smoking-related risks that led to their firm decision to stop smoking.