RESUMEN
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To examine the association between social support and successful smoking cessation outcomes in males from rural areas.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A community-based case-control study was conducted with 642 adult male cases who appeared to be successful spontaneous smoking quitters as cases, together with other 700 adult males who failed quitting smoking to serve, as controls. Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) was used to assess the individual social support. Multiple linear method was used to evaluate the relationship between social support and the outcome of successful cessation in smoking.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After adjusting the potential confounders as age, education, marital status, profession, age of initial smoking and number of pack-years on smoking, the adjusted mean of subjective social support in successful quitters was significant lower than that in the failed ones (P<0.001). The differences of adjusted means between objective social support and its utility were not statistically different in the two groups among the population who recognized that cigarettes should always be provided when people interact with each other (P=0.124; P=0.763). However, the adjusted means of social support and the related three dimensions did not show significant differences in the two groups among the population in disapproval of the above said social norms (P>0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Data from our research indicated that social support would negatively affect the successful spontaneous cessation of smoking among people under unhealthy smoking culture.</p>