Pilot study of a 3-day residential treatment for smoking cessation in Hong Kong

Abstract

INTRODUCTION The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Integrated Centre on Smoking Cessation has been providing free smoking cessation services since 2009. The average quit rate from 2009 to 2014 was 37%. In order to boost the quite rate, we have implemented a residential treatment program for smokers who volunteered to participate. Having run the program for two years, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate its effectiveness. METHODS We recruited the participants who had failed previous quit attempts and who came to seek our smoking cessation services. A 3-day residential program of activities were arranged for our participants. Intensive individual and group counseling was provided. Pharmacotherapy was also provided to alleviate withdrawal symptoms. This was followed by our usual treatment and follow-up program. Self-reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence rate at 26 weeks based on intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis was assessed. RESULTS A total of 40 clients volunteered to join the program, age 26 to 65 years old with a mean of 44.1 years. There were 25 (62.5%) males and 15 (37.5%) females. The quit rate at 26 weeks was 57.5%. Smokers older than 43 years, having cohabiting smokers, and smoking for more than 28 years, were more likely to quit and this was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS This pilot study demonstrated that a 3-day residential program is effective in helping addicted smokers who volunteer to quit smoking and is cost effective compared to longer residential programs.

Smoking cessation advice from healthcare professionals helps those in the contemplation and preparation stage: An application with transtheoretical model underpinning in a community-based program

“…In the meantime, those ever having cessation advice from others and with shorter smoking years were associated with higher forward transition for those in the preparation stage. These results are consistent with Ho et al 25 who provided residential treatment to those intending to stop smoking (namely, already beyond the contemplation stage) and found that the elderly with a longer smoking duration were more likely to quit 25 .…”

“…The smoking cessation aids provided by healthcare professionals have been demonstrated as effective for those intending to stop smoking. Some studies on 3-day to 8-day residential programs with professional counseling and pharmacotherapy have demonstrated their effectiveness [25][26][27][28][29] . These studies targeted smokers who were willing to quit smoking or even in the state of nicotine dependence.…”

Successful Smoking Cessation among Women Smokers Based on Utilizing National Smoking Cessation Service Type in Korea

“…Prior studies have also demonstrated that a three-day residence program is more cost-effective than a long-term residence program. Exclusive smoking cessation camps should be conducted for women [ 27 ]. This will help mitigate any barriers they may face in terms of entering treatment.…”

Efficacy of a short-term residential smoking cessation therapy versus standard outpatient group therapy (‘START-Study’): study protocol of a randomized controlled trial

“…Thus, the residential program could be easily applied in other contexts and medical centers. This study builds on several uncontrolled and cohort studies that indicate significantly higher abstinence rates from more intensive residential smoking cessation programs than can be expected from an outpatient therapy program [21,[38][39][40][41][42][43][44]. Before a residential model of smoking cessation should be recommended for use in routine care, randomized controlled data on long-term efficacy is needed.…”

“…These relate to uncontrolled or cohort studies with limited methodological quality. However, outcomes suggest significantly increased 6-month or 12-month abstinence rates from 42.6 to 64.7% [21,[38][39][40][41][42][43]. In a large American cohort study with 226 residential smokers, Hays et al [21] reported significantly higher 6-month abstinence rates of 52% from 8-day residential smoking cessation therapy directly compared to 27% in outpatient therapy with 4327 patients, conducted from the same research group.…”