title: Smoking cessation program in outpatient clinics of Family Medicine Department in Taiwan: a longitudinal evaluation.
abstract: The Government of Taiwan has imposed a tobacco health tax of NT$5 (US$0.14) per pack of cigarettes since January 2002. The Department of Health has now begun to fund a smoking cessation program that provides nicotine-replacement therapy (NRT) and brief counseling by physicians in outpatient clinics. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the smoking cessation program with a 3-year follow-up review implemented at outpatient clinics, which were run by the Family Medicine Department in a medical center, with a total of 772 adult participants. The abstinence rates were 99.7%, 49.2%, 37.7%, 30.2%, and 22.7%, at the 1-, 3-, 6-, 12-, and 36-month points, respectively. The frequency of clinic visits is a major factor predicting long-term cessation. The results indicate the need to pursue implementation and evaluation of multidisciplinary interventions in smoking cessation clinics with a longer follow-up, including the promotion of compliance to increase clinic visits and prevent relapse.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, and Shu-Zen College of Medicine and Management, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Kuang-Chieh
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Hsueh
authors.forename: Chih-Yin
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yi-Hsin
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Chih-Ling
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D037001:Directive Counseling; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010045:Outpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult