Characteristics of smokers and outcomes of short term smoking cessation interventions according to cessation medication choice: Experience of an outpatient smoking cessation clinic

• Published in: Tobacco induced diseases Vol. 16; no. 3
• Main Author: Karadoğan, Dilek
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heraklion European Publishing 03.10.2018
• Subjects: Bupropion; Cigarette smoking; Comorbidity; Drug addiction; Drugs; Education; Health care; Health services; Nicotine; Patients; Side effects; smokers; Smoking; Smoking cessation; Statistical methods
• ISSN: 1617-9625; 1617-9625
• DOI: 10.18332/tid/94532

Background and aim: There are three forms of stop smoking medications (SSMs) in Turkey; bupropion SR, varenicline and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) that are nicotine patches and nicotine gums. The aim of this study is to make a comparison between the SSM choices. Methods: Patients applied to the local SCC in a secondary health care unit between June 2014 and June 2017 were retrospectively evaluated. Among them the ones who had records of phone visits at third month were included. Patients were grouped according to the started SSM and comparisons were made by using appropriate statistical methods. Results: Totally 417 patients’ data were evaluated with a mean age of 44.0±13.7 and male dominance (65.0%). Bupropion started group was consisted of 218 (52.2%) smokers, that number was 134 (32.1%) for varenicline started group and 65 (15.5%) for NRT started group. Between groups; mean ages, education levels, jobs, comorbid disease, Fagerström test score level, mean treatment usage period, mean control visit number, presence of adverse reactions and coverage status of the treatment had significant differences (p< 0.05), however, difference according to gender and quit rate were not significantly different (p> 0.05). Varenicline started group has the lower mean age, higher education level, higher rate of patients with actively working, lower rate of comorbid disease, higher mean medication usage duration, higher control visit number, lower rate at the paid medication period than both groups (bupropion SR and NRT), while presence of adverse reaction rate was only significantly higher than NRT (p< 0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that not only the demographical characteristics but also the clinical outcomes as well as the coverage status of health insurances affect the SSM choice. Therefore at the time of evaluating the results of the smoking cessation interventions all these factors should be considered and each medication’s outcomes should be evaluated seperatelly.