Effect of telling patients their “spirometric-lung-age” on smoking cessation in Japanese smokers

Abstract

Background: Cigarette smoking remains a significant public health problem. However, current treatment programs have not yet succeeded in sufficiently reducing smoking rates. The study aimed to examine whether patients' recognition of "spirometric-lung-age (SLA)" estimated from spirometry data prompts smoking cessation. Methods: From December 2010 to September 2011, participating smokers were prospectively enrolled into the standardized smoking cessation program (Visits 1-5 for 12 weeks) and assigned single-blindly to either SLA assessment or control groups. The SLA group was informed of the estimated age of their lungs from spirometry analysis and given an opportunity to recognize the difference from their actual chronological age, whereas the control group was not. The primary calculation of outcome was the smoking quit rate on Visit 5, whereas the secondary end-point was the proportion of patients who remained abstinent 1 year later. Results: One hundred and twenty-six Japanese smokers (88 males) participated and were randomly assigned to the SLA group (n=52) or the control group (n=74). The smoking quit rate on Visit 5 was similar in the SLA assessment group and control group (59.6% vs. 41.9%; P=0.0700). However, the proportion of patients who remained abstinent 1 year later was similar in both groups (78.6% vs. 69.0%; P=0.5497). Multivariate logistic regression analysis after adjusting baseline characteristics demonstrated that telling patients their SLA, the use of varenicline, and age were significantly associated with smoking quit rate on Visit 5 whereas only age was associated with remaining abstinent 1 year later.Conclusions: Telling patients their SLA can become a useful tool prompting smoking cessation among Japanese smokers although other factors such as pharmacotherapy and age also influence the cessation of smoking.

How effective are ‘age’ tools at changing patient behaviour? A rapid review

“…Kaminsky et al 20 reported quit rates of 32% in the intervention group versus 24% in the control group. In the study by Takagi et al 21 the smoking quit rate at 12 weeks in the intervention group was 59.6% vs 41.9% in the control group. This effect was sustained at the 1-year continued abstinence rate (78.6% vs 69%).…”

“…Five RCTs looked at the effect of spirometric-lung-age and associated smoking cessation. Three of these studies (Parkes et al 15, Kaminsky et al 20 and Takagi et al 21) showed that the intervention group had a clinically significant increase in smoking cessation. Parkes et al 15 showed that at 12 months the intervention group had a confirmed smoking cessation rate of 13.6% versus control at 6.4% (p=0.01).…”

“…This was mostly due to the heterogeneity of the recruitment, measurements of patient behaviour and the use of different age calculators. Recruitment included GP practices,15 18 20 Foulds 2015 19 college campuses (Lipkus 2007), online access research panels (Souretti 2010, Dammon OC 2018), market research company recruitment,16 smoking cessation clinics,21 25 hospital records (Drummond 2014,22) employee from recycling company,26 telephone directory24 and Spanish public health workers 17. Therefore, a meta-analysis could not be performed on the data.…”

Weight gain and chronic disease progression among individuals incarcerated in Canadian federal penitentiaries: a retrospective cohort study

“…These contrasts illustrate that, depending on the context, it is possible to enable individuals to be physically active in the prison setting (Plugge et al, 2014). However, in Japan, smoking rates are high in the general population (32-40% for men) (Katoh, 2020;Takagi et al, 2017) and probably even higher among incarcerated individuals.…”

Self-Reported Smoking Status 10-Months After a Single Session Intervention Including an Education Conference About Smoking Harms and Announcement of Spirometric Lung-Age

“…To the finest of the authors’ knowledge, only 10 original papers had investigated the effects of confronting smokers with SLA on their smoking attitudes. 10,11,14–21 The aforementioned studies reported conflicting results. While some authors reported that communicating SLA prompts smoking cessation, 11,14–17,21 others highlighted its ineffectiveness.…”