Introduction:
A success in smoking cessation campaign has an impact on people’s smoking behaviors. The campaign is also affected by their attitudes and perceptions, which are not fully explored in rural communities.

Objectives:
This study aimed to investigate inhabitants’ attitudes toward smoking and their perceptions of a smoking cessation campaign in the communities, and to compare differences in attitudes and perceptions between inhabitants who were current smokers and non-smokers.

Methods:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted in inhabitants who were 15 years old or over living in Paknam-Chumphon subdistrict during July – November 2020. They were selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The inhabitants’ characteristics and smoking data with attitudes and perceptions were collected and analyzed. A subgroup analysis based on smokers and non-smokers was performed using the Mann-Whitney U test or Chi-Square test.

Results:
A total of 395 persons were interviewed. Slightly more than half were female (57.7%) and the mean age was 48.5 years (SD=15.4). Half of them were current smokers (49.4%) with on average 5.37 pack-year smoking history. Nearly one-third (30.9%) already made quit attempts in the past and two-thirds (67.3%) were secondhand smokers in the communities. They strongly agreed with smoking cessation with the mean score of 3.9 (SD=0.9); the non-smokers had significantly higher scores than the current smokers (4.2 vs. 3.8, p=0.001). Regarding their perceptions, 87.6% perceived the existing smoking cessation campaign and its benefits, as well as the key persons aiding a smoking-free community and persuasion of others to quit smoking. The non-smokers perceived some issues more than the smokers. A few issues, i.e., no-smoking areas and media campaigns, were less perceived and should be improved.

Conclusions:
Most inhabitants had positive attitudes towards quitting smoking and good perceptions of the campaign in the communities. Some of the smokers quit or tried to quit smoking.