Pain-Related Smoking Expectancies and Smoking Behavior Among US Adult Cigarette Smokers with Chronic Pain

BackgroundThis study investigated the factor structure of a measure of pain-smoking interrelations and expectancies (pain and smoking inventory (PSI)) and examined associations with risk factors for smoking maintenance among smokers with chronic pain (CP).MethodParticipants (n = 504; M age = 46 +/- 13 years; 58% female) completed an online survey about health-related factors and smoking characteristics. Data were analyzed using Horn's parallel analysis (PA) and multiple linear regression.ResultsPA indicated that a single-dimension structure was the best fit for the PSI. Our regression model accounted for 34% of the variance in PSI score. The PSI was associated with younger age, higher education, poorer physical functioning, greater pain severity and pain intensity, higher psychological distress, greater nicotine dependence, lower self-efficacy and greater perceived difficulty quitting, and lifetime use of behavioral treatment for quitting smoking.ConclusionThis research is the first step in identifying potential targets for smoking cessation approaches tailored to smokers with CP.