Purpose: To test the relationships among particular motives for smoking cessation, stage of readiness to quit (preparation or contemplation), and sociodemographic characteristics.

Design: A cross-sectional study to examine attitudes toward and use of health promotion at the worksite, using a self-administered questionnaire.

Setting: Two German metal companies.

Subjects: Of 1641 responding employees (response rate 65% in company A and 44% in company B), 360 smokers who intended to quit immediately (n = 105) or in the near future (n = 255) were analyzed.

Measures: The questionnaire comprised of sociodemographic characteristics, smoking behavior, smoking history, readiness to quit smoking, motives to quit, such as coworkers' complaints and health-related or financial concerns. Chi-squared tests and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed.

Results: Health-related reasons (94%) predominated financial (27%) or image-related (14%) reasons for smoking cessation. Participants in the cessation preparation group were more likely to report an awareness of being addicted (79.6% vs. 58.2%; p < .001) and the negative public image (22.5% vs. 11.6%; p < .01) as reasons for quitting compared with those in the contemplation group. In multivariable regression models, the motives for smoking cessation, including reduced performance, family's and coworkers' complaints, pregnancy/children, and negative public image, but not health-related and financial concerns, differed significantly by gender, age, marital status, education, and occupational status.

Conclusions: Motives for smoking cessation vary according to the individual's level of readiness to quit and sociodemographic background.