Results Taken from a Smoking Cessation Clinic at a
Second-Level State Hospital
Objective: Tobacco is the most common cause of diseases and death worldwide. Pointing out the economic, social, and other damages of tobacco and tobacco
products, which also cause addiction, is important when evaluated in a modern concept, where health is defined as the general well-being of a person in physical,
mental, and social terms. This study evaluated the results of patients treated in a smoking cessation clinic at a second-level state hospital.
Methods: One hundred twenty-seven patients who applied to a smoking cessation clinic were retrospectively included in this study. It was planned to evaluate the
results of treatment at the end of 6 months. The patients were evaluated in terms of smoking habits, sociodemographic specifications, Fagerstrom addiction degrees,
and coexisting psychiatric diseases. Patients who quit and did not quit were compared in terms of specifications and treatments.
Results: Thirty-nine of the 127 patients (307%) were women and the remaining (69.3%) were men. The average age was found to be 36.1±11.3 years. The rate of quitting for
all patients was found to be 32.3%. Both groups had similarities for age, gender, and age when they started smoking. The longer a patient has been smoking for, lesser is the
quitting success rate. There was a statistically significant difference in terms of the quitting success between treatment methods (p<0.05). The most effective method seemed
to be behavioral therapy + varenicline use. This was followed by behavioral therapy + bupropion use and behavioral therapy + nicotine gum use. Nicotine patch + behavioral
therapy and individual behavioral therapy have been found to have the same success percentage on smoking cessation.
Conclusion: We found that pharmacological support therapy with proven efficiency should be given with individual behavioral therapy and support by profes-
sional doctors to smokers in a difficult period such as smoking cessation.
Keywords: Tobacco, smoking cessation, treatment, outpatient clinic
Introduction
Worldwide, approximately 6 million people die every year of a disease caused by tobacco. Deaths are
mostly due to cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Currently, 1.5 billion
people smoke worldwide (1, 2). The number of deaths is expected to reach 8 million in 2030 if it is
not brought under control (1, 2). More than 600,000 deaths caused by tobacco every year are due to
passive smoking. Further, more than 80% of deaths occur in developing countries (1, 2).
Tobacco use is also known to cause economic losses. Calculations show that tobacco-related health
care spending varies between 0.1% and 1.1% of the gross national product of countries (3-6).
Another fact is that 70% of smokers want to quit smoking, and though approximately 1/3 of them
attempt to quit each year, less than 10% can manage to not smoke for a long term (7).
Professional help and pharmacological methods in the treatment of smoking, which is considered
as a disease to be treated these days, significantly increase the rate of success (8).
In our country, due to social awareness, indoor smoking bans, diseases that occur, and economic
reasons, the number of people who smoke who apply to smoking cessation programs to quit
smoking is increasing on a daily basis. We aimed to evaluate the characteristics of patients in
smoking cessation programs and the success of smoking cessation treatment methods as the
second step public hospital.
Methods
A nurse and 3 chest disease specialists who participated in and successfully completed tobacco
addiction training organized by the Ministry of Health Public Health Agency of Turkey Drug En-
forcement Agency serve 3 days a week in our smoking cessation clinic that started to work and
admit patients in March 2012.
Between March 2012 and March 2013, 358 patients were admitted to our smoking cessation clinic.
In the first interview, their detailed smoking history was questioned, and they were clearly and
Abstract
Pınar Mutlu
1
, Berna Botan Yıldırım
2
, Barış Açıkmeşe
3
1
Clinic of Chest Diseases, Çan State Hospital,
Çanakkale, Türkiye
2
Department of Chest Diseases, Ordu University
Faculty of Medicine, Ordu, Türkiye
3
Clinic of Chest Diseases, Yedikule Chest Diseases
Hospital, İstanbul, Türkiye
Address for Correspondence:
Pınar Mutlu
E-mail: pinarmutlu78@yahoo.com
Received:
04.10.2015
Accepted:
11.11.2015
© Copyright 2015 by Available online at
www.istanbulmedicaljournal.org
Original Article İstanbul Med J 2015; 16: 145-8
DOI: 10.5152/imj.2015.67934