Targeting smoking cessation to high prevalence communities: outcomes from a pilot intervention for gay men.
BACKGROUND
Cigarette smoking prevalence among gay men is twice that of population levels. A pilot community-level intervention was developed and evaluated aiming to meet UK Government cessation and cancer prevention targets.


METHODS
Four 7-week withdrawal-oriented treatment groups combined nicotine replacement therapy with peer support. Self-report and carbon monoxide register data were collected at baseline and 7 weeks. N = 98 gay men were recruited through community newspapers and organisations in London UK.


RESULTS
At 7 weeks, n = 44 (76%) were confirmed as quit using standard UK Government National Health Service monitoring forms. In multivariate analysis the single significant baseline variable associated with cessation was previous number of attempts at quitting (OR 1.48, p = 0.04).


CONCLUSIONS
This tailored community-level intervention successfully recruited a high-prevalence group, and the outcome data compares very favourably to national monitoring data (which reports an average of 53% success). Implications for national targeted services are considered.
Department of Palliative Care & Policy, Guy's King's & St Thomas' School of Medicine, King's College London, Weston Education Centre, Cutcombe Road, London, SE5 9PJ, UK. richard.harding@kcl.ac.uk
Richard
R
Harding
James
J
Bensley
Nick
N
Corrigan
D000328:Adult; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006302:Health Services Research; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008131:London / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009538:Nicotine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012657:Self-Help Groups; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013222:State Medicine; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D009538:Nicotine