Abstract Body

Background and purpose
When quitting smoking there is a difference in success rate between men and women, with women being less successful. We aimed to provide a deeper insight into the gender-specific barriers to smoking cessation and preferences for interventions in primary care, in order to contribute to better aligned cessation care for women.

Methods
A qualitative study using focus groups with regularly smoking female and male adults from four different general practices in The Hague (The Netherlands). Eleven women and nine men participated. Participants included were regular smokers with a minimum age of 18 and sufficient command of the Dutch language, and willing to talk about smoking cessation. Inclusion ended when saturation was reached for both women and men. Participants were selected by means of purposeful sampling, whereby looking at age, educational level, and experience with quitting.

Results
The main barriers to smoking cessation in women were psychological factors, such as emotion and stress, compared to environmental factors in men. Women indicated they were in need of support and positivity, and both genders expressed the desire for assistance without judgement. Contrary to men, women were not drawn to restrictions and (dis-)incentives.

Conclusions
When counselling smokers, in women the focus should be on perceived internal problems, as opposed to more external obstacles in men. Female smokers seem to prefer non-coercive interventions, such as a group intervention offering support and positivity. Future research should focus on these gender differences, and how they could improve smoking cessation programs in primary care.