title: Smoking cessation in family practice: the effects of advice and nicotine chewing gum prescription.
abstract: The efficacy of physician anti-smoking intervention with 289 patients in a family practice setting was assessed. The design included two treatment conditions, physician advice and physician advice plus the offer of nicotine chewing gum (NCG) prescription. A no-advice group permitted assessment of the effects of repeated testing. The NCG group had higher rates of abstinence at all follow-up points, but the difference approached statistical significance at 3 months only (p less than .10). Comparison of those who actually used NCG to all other groups revealed significantly more users were abstinent at 1- and 3-month follow-up. A similar pattern occurred for proportion attempting cessation and smoking reduction. A dose-response relationship of gum use to outcome was identified. Long-term users (greater than 20 days) had 86% abstinence at 3 months versus 18% for short-term users. Thus, NCG does appear to have a role in family practice for promoting short-term cessation.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002638:Chewing Gum; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009538:Nicotine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D000074606:Smoking Prevention
chemical_list: D002638:Chewing Gum; D009538:Nicotine