The Relationship Between Smoking Cessation and Time Perspective in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and has a high mortality and morbidity rate. Smoking is one of its important risk factors. The time perspective is the basic cognitive process by which individuals perceive, interpret, and interact with their environment and describes the impact of attention on the past, present, and future. It was hypothesized that this cognitive process can have an effect on decisions to use or quit smoking. Thus, this study evaluated the relationship between smoking cessation and time perspective.

Overall, 170 patients who were hospitalized with the diagnosis of CAD in Bandar Abbas Shahid Mohammadi hospital were selected for inclusion in this cross-sectional descriptive study. They all had a history of smoking. The subjects were divided into two groups of smokers and previous smokers (smoking cessation at least 3 months ago). Finally, Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory was used to evaluate the time perspective.

In general, 170 patients were surveyed, including 151 males and 19 females. Based on the results, 140 people were smokers and 30 had quit smoking. Those quitting smoking received higher scores on past-positive and future time perspectives (P < 0.05). Patients who were smokers had higher scores in the present-hedonistic, present-fatalistic, and future transcendent perspectives, but they were not statistically significant.

Although previous evidence confirmed a positive relationship between present time perspective and risky behaviors, our findings failed to prove it. However, people with future time perspectives had less tendency to drug addiction and smoking.