Ute Mons, Geoffrey T. Fong, Martina Pötschke-Langer, Genevieve Sansone, Peter A. Hall, Yuan Jiang, Mary E. Thompson, François Beck, Maizurah Omar, Romain Guignard, Hua-Hie Yong, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo [Waterloo], Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, MaRS Centre, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Institut National de Prévention et d'Education pour la Santé (INPES), CERMES3 - Centre de recherche Médecine, sciences, santé, santé mentale, société (CERMES3 - UMR 8211 / U988 / UM 7), École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5 (UPD5)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unit Cancer Prevention and WHO-Collaborating Centre for Tobacco Control, German Cancer Research Center - Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum [Heidelberg] (DKFZ), The Cancer Council Victoria, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), National Tobacco Control Office, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, This research was funded by the following project grants: ITC Scotland: Flight Attendants' Medical Research Institute, NHS Health Scotland, Cancer Research UK (C312/A3726), Scottish Executive. ITC France: French Institute for Health Promotion and Health Education (INPES), French National Cancer Institute (INCa), French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT). ITC Germany: German Ministry of Health, German Cancer Research Center, Dieter-Mennekes-Umweltstiftung. ITC China: U.S. National Cancer Institute (P50 CA111236, P01 CA138389, R01 CA125116), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (79551). ITC Malaysia: U.S. National Cancer Institute (P50 CA111236, P01 CA138389), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (79551). Survey development, project management, and data management, ITC Project, University of Waterloo: U.S. National Cancer Institute (P50 CA111236, P01 CA138389), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (57897, 79551), Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. Genevieve Sansone et al. BMC Public Health 2013, 13:346 Page 7 of 8 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/346 Sansone was supported by an award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Geoffrey T. Fong was supported by a Prevention Scientist Award from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute. Ute Mons is financially supported by Klaus Tschira Foundation gGmbH., BMC, Ed., Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5 (UPD5)-École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Institut National de Prévention et d'Education pour la Santé ( INPES ), CERMES3 - Centre de recherche, médecine, sciences, santé, santé mentale, société ( CERMES3 - UM 7 (UMR 8211 / U988) ), École des hautes études en sciences sociales ( EHESS ) -Université Paris Descartes - Paris 5 ( UPD5 ) -Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale ( INSERM ) -Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique ( CNRS ), German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Universiti Sains Malaysia, and USM Pulau Pinang
International audience; BACKGROUND: Prior studies have demonstrated that time perspective---the propensity to consider short-versus long-term consequences of one's actions---is a potentially important predictor of health-related behaviors, including smoking. However, most prior studies have been conducted within single high-income countries. The aim of this study was to examine whether time perspective was associated with the likelihood of being a smoker or non-smoker across five countries that vary in smoking behavior and strength of tobacco control policies. METHODS: The data were from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Surveys in five countries with large probability samples of both smokers (N=10,341) and non-smokers (N=4,955): Scotland, France, Germany, China, and Malaysia. The surveys were conducted between 2005--2008. Survey respondents indicated their smoking status (smoker vs. non-smoker) and time perspective (future oriented vs. not future-oriented) and provided demographic information. RESULTS: Across all five countries, non-smokers were significantly more likely to be future-oriented (66%) than were smokers (57%), chi2(1, N = 15,244) = 120.64, p < .001. This bivariate relationship between time perspective and smoking status held in a multivariate analysis. After controlling for country, age, sex, income, education, and ethnicity (language in France), those who were future-oriented had 36% greater odds of being a non-smoker than a smoker (95% CI: 1.22 to 1.51, p