Stages of change of smoking cessation: relationships with other health behaviors.

Health behaviors are often intercorrelated, suggesting that these behaviors may be manifestations of underlying attitudes toward health. Changes in these attitudes may cause simultaneous changes in several health behaviors. As individuals progress among the stages of change of one health behavior, such as smoking cessation, they may make changes in other health behaviors as well. This study evaluated the hypothesis that subjects in the later stages of change of smoking cessation would practice more healthful behaviors than subjects in the early stages of change. Subjects were 929 respondents in the California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Study who were current smokers or had quit smoking within the past year. Subjects in the more advanced stages of smoking cessation showed more healthful levels of alcohol use and exercise than subjects in the earlier stages. These results suggest that people may make improvements in several health behaviors concurrently. If so, lifestyle-based health promotion programs may be able to take advantage of shifts in attitudes toward health behavior to modify several health behaviors simultaneously.