Factors associated with participation, attrition, and outcome in a smoking cessation program at the workplace.

Abstract

Despite their growing popularity, worksite health-promotion programs have generally been characterized as having low participation rates, high attrition rates, and modest outcomes. This investigation identified the predictors of participation, attrition, and outcome of worksite smoking-cessation program. Subjects were regular cigarette smokers recruited from two worksites. Of 66 eligible smokers in the two worksites, 44 (67%) agreed to participate in the program. Fifty-five percent (24 of 44) of these completed the program. Of those completing the program, 29% had quit smoking by posttest and 17% were abstinent at the 6-month follow-up. Results indicated that a different set of variables predicted participation, attrition, and outcome. The significant predictors of smokers who participated were the length of cessation in previous abstinence attempts, the number of years they smoked, and the belief regarding personal vulnerability in contracting a smoking-related disease. Levels of pretest carbon monoxide along with attitudes regarding the adoption of smoking restrictions in the worksite predicted attrition. Posttest cessation was related to nicotine levels of cigarette brand smoked at pretest and pretest beliefs regarding postcessation weight gain. Abstinence at the 6-month follow-up was predicted by the number of co-workers who smoked and pretest concerns related to postcessation weight gain. The results are discussed in terms of future evaluation and intervention efforts.

Weight concerns and change in smoking behavior over two years in a working population.

“…[5][6] Results from the third study, which involved a larger sample size (n = 417) and a more thorough assessment of weight concerns, failed to confirm this earlier finding.3…”

Effect of Smoking on Body Weight: Longitudinal Analysis of the SUN Cohort

“…Several studies have shown a weight gain after quitting smoking, although the size of this increase varies from one study to another. 7,22 In our cohort study, participants who smoked more at baseline had a higher weight gain after stopping. This agrees with results from other studies.…”

“…6 However, weight gain after quitting is often given as a reason for not stopping smoking, especially among women. [6][7][8] This is increasingly well-known by the population at large and has been dealt with in clinical practice after carrying out cardiovascular prevention. Most studies have observed that there is indeed an increase in weight after stopping smoking, although the weight gain varied between them.…”

Proactive recruitment predicts participant retention to end of treatment in a secondhand smoke reduction trial with low-income maternal smokers

“…Unfortunately, clinical trials that purposively enroll high-risk and underserved smokers continue to be challenged with retaining participants, a consequence that erodes statistical power [1], threatens study validity [2,3], and undermines clinical advancements that could guide the reduction of health disparities. Smoking intervention trials typically demonstrate retention as low as 50% [4][5][6] with lower retention rates observed among underserved populations [2, [7][8][9][10][11] and smokers known to have increased difficulty quitting, such as women [12,13] (low income, minority women in particular [14]). Researchers have explored factors that influence underserved smokers' enrollment in clinical trials [9,10,15] including studies evaluating effects of different recruitment strategies [16][17][18][19][20].…”