title: A Randomised Single-Blinded Controlled Trial on the Effectiveness of Brief Advice on Smoking Cessation among Tertiary Students in Malaysia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Tobacco smoking, a habitual behavior, is addictive and detrimental to health. Quitting requires personal abilities and environmental opportunities and therefore, improving these abilities and opportunities will undoubtedly act on smokers' motivation to quit.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective single-blinded randomized controlled interventional study was conducted among first year undergraduate students in Malaysia. A total of eighty smokers were randomly allocated to a control or intervention groups (40/40). Randomization remained concealed from research personnel. All participants were followed up for six months to evaluate abstinence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Quit line enrolment rate of the intervention group was 55% (22) compared to 7.5% (3) in the control (P < 0.001 95% CI 30.1 - 64.9). In the intervention group 27% (6) sustained quitting for six months compared to none in the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study has shown that brief advice for smoking cessation is more effective than an information leaflet alone to promote quitting and that to maintain abstinence quit line follow up is necessary. Larger samples size and longer follow up studies are needed to further confirm these findings.
authors.affiliation: National Poisons Centre of Malaysia, University Sains Malaysia.
authors.forename: Wdas
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: De Silva
authors.affiliation: National Poisons Centre of Malaysia, University Sains Malaysia.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Awang
authors.affiliation: National Poisons Centre of Malaysia, University Sains Malaysia.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samsudeen
authors.affiliation: Program of Public Health, Department of Health Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, Qatar.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hanna
keywords: Brief advice; Quit line; Smoking cessation; Tobacco smoking