scholarly journals Exploratory Analyses of the Popularity and Efficacy of Four Behavioral Methods of Gradual Smoking Cessation

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 2257-2261
Author(s):  
Nicola Lindson ◽  
Susan Michie ◽  
Paul Aveyard

Abstract Introduction Around half of smokers attempt to stop by cutting-down first. Evidence suggests that this results in similar quit rates to abrupt quitting. Evidence for the effectiveness and popularity of different gradual cessation methods is sparse. Methods Secondary, exploratory, analyses of a randomized trial of gradual versus abrupt smoking cessation. Gradual participants (N = 342) chose between four methods of cutting-down over 2 weeks: cutting-out the easiest cigarettes first (HR-E); cutting-out the most difficult cigarettes first (HR-D); smoking on an increasing time schedule (SR); and not smoking during particular periods (SFP). Nicotine replacement therapy and behavioral support were provided before and after quit day. We used logistic and linear regression modeling to test whether the method chosen was associated with smoking reduction, quit attempts, and abstinence, while adjusting for potential confounders. Results Participants were on average 49 years old, smoked 20 cigarettes per day, and had a Fagerstrom Test for Cigarette Dependence score of 6. 14.9% (51/342) chose HR-E, 2.1% (7/342) HR-D, 46.2% (158/342) SFP, and 36.8% (126/342) SR. We found no evidence of adjusted or unadjusted associations between method and successful 75% reduction in cigarette consumption, reduction in percentage cigarettes per day or exhaled carbon monoxide, quit attempts, or abstinence at 4-week or 6-month follow-up. Conclusions Future research and practice could focus more heavily on the SR and SFP methods as these appeared notably more popular than HR. There was substantial imprecision in the efficacy data, which should be treated with caution; however, none of the gradual cessation methods showed clear evidence of being more efficacious than others. Implications There is evidence that people who would like to quit smoking gradually should be supported to do so. However, as this is relatively new thinking and there is large potential for variation in methods, guidance on the best way to offer support is sparse. This article is an exploratory analysis of the popularity and efficacy of various methods in an attempt to move the topic forward and inform the implementation of gradual smoking cessation methods in practice. The identified popularity of some methods over others signposts directions for future research.

Author(s):  
Sunee Lertsinudom ◽  
Pentipa Kaewketthong ◽  
Tamonwan Chankaew ◽  
Dujrudee Chinwong ◽  
Surarong Chinwong

This study aimed to report the effectiveness of community pharmacy smoking cessation services in 13 health regions in Thailand using a retrospective data-collecting method from the Foundation of Community Pharmacy database. The participants were smokers aged at least 18 years. The outcomes were the abstinence of smoking at least 30 consecutive days by self-report only and self-report with exhaled CO level <7 ppm (if available), the number of cigarettes smoked daily, exhaled carbon monoxide (exhaled CO), and % peak expiratory flow rate (%PEFR); smokers measured these outcomes before and after receiving the smoking cessation services. Of 58 community pharmacies, 532 smokers (93% male, mean age of 42.4 ± 14.9 years) received smoking cessation services from community pharmacists. Of 235 smokers with complete data, 153 (28.8%, 153/532) smokers reported smoking abstinence by self-report. The mean number of cigarettes smoked daily reduced from 15.3 ± 8.7 to 1.9 ± 3.8 cigarettes, p-value < 0.001. The exhaled CO levels of smokers significantly reduced from 11.7 ± 5.9 ppm to 7.2 ± 4.4 ppm, p-value < 0.001. The %PEFR also significantly increased from 84.2 ± 19.4 to 89.5 ± 19.5, p-value < 0.001. In conclusion, Thai community pharmacy smoking cessation services could aid smokers to quit smoking. This study is the outcome of the real-world community pharmacy smoking cessation service; policymakers should consider this service to be included in the national healthcare policy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (9) ◽  
pp. 1453-1459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirte A G Kuipers ◽  
Robert West ◽  
Emma V Beard ◽  
Jamie Brown

Abstract Introduction Since 2012, England has an annual “Stoptober” campaign for collective smoking cessation. Our aim was to assess (1) overall impact of the Stoptober campaign on quit attempts over its first 6 years, (2) consistency of impact over the campaign years, and (3) the role of the campaign budget. Methods We used data of 51 399 adult smokers and ex-smokers in 132 repeat cross-sectional monthly surveys in England, 2007–2017. In a quasiexperimental design, adjusted logistic regression analyses compared past-month quit attempt rate between (1) October and other months in the year, between 2007–2011 and 2012–2017; (2) October and other months, across years 2012–2017; and (3) October and other months, between high-budget (2012–2015) and low-budget Stoptober campaigns (2016–2017). Bayes factors (BF) differentiated insensitive data and absence of an effect. Results (1) In 2012–2017, quit attempts were more prevalent in October versus other months (odds ratio [OR]: 1.24, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.00 to 1.53), whereas similar in 2007–2011 (OR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.76 to 1.18; BF = 0.2); data were somewhat insensitive but supported this difference (OR: 1.30, 95% CI: 0.97 to 1.75; BF = 2.1). (2) In 2012–2017, quit attempt prevalence ranged from 3.1% to 8.5% in October and 5.0% to 7.3% in other months. The difference between October and other months was large in 2012 (absolute unadjusted difference of 3.3%; OR: 1.92, 95% CI: 1.23 to 2.98) and 2015 (3.1%; OR: 1.84, 95% CI: 1.14 to 2.95), but small in 2013–2014 and 2016–2017 (0.36 &lt; BF &lt; 1.02). (3) Data were somewhat insensitive but supported interaction with campaign budget (OR: 1.50, 95% CI: 0.92 to 2.44; BF = 2.2). Discussion In 2012–2017, there appears to have been an increase in past-month quit attempts during October in England. The increase was inconsistent across Stoptober campaigns and appears to have been greater when the campaign budget was higher. Implications Over the first 6 years of Stoptober campaigns, there appears to have been an overall increase in past-month quit attempts during October in England, and the data imply that a sufficiently high budget contributes to greater impact of the Stoptober campaign. These findings encourage the further spread of the Stoptober campaign to other countries. Future research should clarify how increased quit attempts as a consequence of Stoptober translate into quit success and which of Stoptober’s ingredients were most important in increasing quit attempts, especially among vulnerable groups.


PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Lee ◽  
Rachel Tenney ◽  
Arthur W. Wallace ◽  
Mehrdad Arjomandi

Introduction Cigarette smoking by surgical patients is associated with increased complications. E-cigarettes have emerged as a potential smoking cessation tool. We sought to determine the feasibility and acceptability of e-cigarettes, compared to nicotine patch, for perioperative smoking cessation in veterans. Methods Preoperative patients were randomized to either the nicotine patch group (n = 10) or the e-cigarette group (n = 20). Both groups were given a free 6-week supply in a tapering dose. All patients received brief counseling, a brochure on perioperative smoking cessation, and referral to the California Smokers’ Helpline. The primary outcome was rate of smoking cessation on day of surgery confirmed by exhaled carbon monoxide. Secondary outcomes included smoking habits, pulmonary function, adverse events, and satisfaction with the products on day of surgery and at 8-weeks follow-up. Results Biochemically verified smoking cessation on day of surgery was similar in both groups. Change in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was 592 ml greater in the e-cigarette group (95% CI [153–1,031] ml, p = 0.01) and change in forced expiratory volume in one second to forced vital capacity ratio (FEV1/FVC ratio) was 40.1% greater in the e-cigarette group (95% CI [18.2%–78.4%], p = 0.04). Satisfaction with the product was similar in both groups. Discussion E-cigarettes are a feasible tool for perioperative smoking cessation in veterans with quit rates comparable to nicotine replacement patch. Spirometry appears to be improved 8-weeks after initiating e-cigarettes compared to nicotine patch, possibly due to worse baseline spirometry and more smoking reduction in the e-cigarette group. An adequately powered study is recommended to determine if these results can be duplicated.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 219-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Sweeney-Magee ◽  
D. Kale ◽  
A. Hamill ◽  
H. Gilbert

Introduction: Smokers unmotivated to quit are neglected by smoking cessation research. Free-text comment analysis is a potentially useful way to gain insight into this group's beliefs.Aims: To analyse the free-text comments provided by smokers unmotivated to quit as part of a randomized controlled trial of computer-tailored feedback for smoking cessation.Method: A random sample of 58,660 smokers were sent a smoking behaviour questionnaire (SBQ). The responses and follow-up outcomes of those providing free-text comments were compared to those who did not to assess the representativeness of the former group of smokers. The comments of participants unmotivated to quit (631) were thematically analysed.Results: Those who provided a comment differed from those who did not on variables including education level and quit attempts at six-month follow-up. Emergent themes included; justification of smoking and restricting smoking instead of quitting.Conclusions: The findings illustrate the value of free-text comments in identifying issues important to respondents. The identified themes highlight areas for future research in smokers unmotivated to quit including cutting down as a path to quitting and explicit messages regarding the inability of positive health behaviours to balance out the negative impact of smoking on health.Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN05385712.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 841-850 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew W Johnson ◽  
Albert Garcia-Romeu ◽  
Patrick S Johnson ◽  
Roland R Griffiths

Data suggest psychedelics such as psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) may hold therapeutic potential in the treatment of addictions, including tobacco dependence. This retrospective cross-sectional anonymous online survey characterized 358 individuals (52 females) who reported having quit or reduced smoking after ingesting a psychedelic in a non-laboratory setting ⩾1 year ago. On average, participants smoked 14 cigarettes/day for 8 years, and had five previous quit attempts before their psychedelic experience. Of the 358 participants, 38% reported continuous smoking cessation after psychedelic use (quitters). Among quitters, 74% reported >2 years’ abstinence. Of the 358 participants, 28% reported a persisting reduction in smoking (reducers), from a mode of 300 cigarettes/month before, to a mode of 1 cigarette/month after the experience. Among reducers, 62% reported >2 years of reduced smoking. Finally, 34% of the 358 participants (relapsers) reported a temporary smoking reduction before returning to baseline smoking levels, with a mode time range to relapse of 3–6 months. Relapsers rated their psychedelic experience significantly lower in personal meaning and spiritual significance than both other groups. Participants across all groups reported less severe affective withdrawal symptoms (e.g. depression, craving) after psychedelic use compared with previous quit attempts, suggesting a potential mechanism of action for psychedelic-associated smoking cessation/reduction. Changes in life priorities/values were endorsed as the most important psychological factor associated with smoking cessation/reduction. Results suggest psychedelics may hold promise in treating tobacco addiction as potentially mediated by spiritual experience, changed priorities/values, and improved emotional regulation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikita B Rajani ◽  
Nikolaos Mastellos ◽  
Filippos T Filippidis

BACKGROUND Falling trends in the number of individuals accessing face-to-face support leaves a significant gap in treatment options for smokers seeking to quit. Face-to-face behavioural support interventions try to target the self-efficacy and motivation to quit of smokers, as these factors are associated with increased likelihood of making quit attempts and successfully quitting. OBJECTIVE Our study aims to better understand smoking cessation mobile applications by investigating if they can impact smokers’ self-efficacy and motivation to quit. Our aim is to evaluate self-efficacy and motivation to quit levels of smokers before and after the usage of smoking cessation mobile apps. METHODS Smokers seeking to quit were recruited to participate in a four-week online study. After screening, eligible participants were assigned to a mobile application (Kwit or Quit Genius). The smoking self-efficacy questionnaire and the motivation to stop smoking scale were used to measure self-efficacy and motivation to quit respectively. Both were assessed at baseline, mid-study (2 weeks) and end-study (4 weeks). Paired sample t-tests investigated differences between study timepoints, and linear regression models investigated associations with change in self-efficacy and motivation to quit between baseline and end-study. RESULTS 116 participants completed the study, with the majority being male (61%), highly employed (66%) and highly educated (75%). A large proportion of participants had low-moderate dependence on nicotine (92%). A statistically significant increase of 5.09 points (95%CI: 1.83 to 8.34) from 37.38 points at baseline in self-efficacy was found at end-study. Similarly, a statistically significant increase of 0.38 points (95%CI: 0.06 to 0.70) from 5.94 points at baseline in motivation to quit was found at end-study. Gender, age and nicotine dependence were not statistically significantly associated with change in self-efficacy and motivation to quit. CONCLUSIONS The assessed mobile apps positively impacted the self-efficacy and motivation to quit of smokers making quit attempts. This has important implications on possible future use of digitalised interventions. However, further research is needed to assess whether digital interventions could supplement or replace traditional forms of therapy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
T O'Dowd

Abstract Background Worldwide smoking remains the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality. Electronic cigarettes (ECs) are increasingly used by tobacco smokers as an aid to smoking cessation; however, their efficacy remains uncertain. Methods Electronic databases, clinical trial registries and grey literature sources were searched. The aim was to examine randomised controlled trials or prospective cohort studies, published since the 2016 Cochrane review on this topic, that assessed the efficacy of ECs in achieving smoking cessation among current smokers. Results Two RCTs and five cohort studies, including a total of 16,460 participants, were eligible for inclusion. One RCT found sustained 1-year abstinence of 18.0% in the EC group versus 9.9% in the nicotine replacement therapy group (RR: 1.83; 95% CI 1.30 to 2.58; P &lt; 0.001). The second RCT did not find a statistically significant difference in abstinence rates between EC users and non-users (RR 0.71). Of the five included cohort studies, four reported statistically significant RRs. Two found a positive association (RRs of 1.45 and 1.84) between EC use and smoking cessation but two studies showed EC use was associated with reduced smoking cessation (RRs of 0.25 and 0.35). Due to significant heterogeneity between the studies the data were deemed unsuitable for pooling into a meta-analysis. All trials assessing smoking reduction reported higher rates of reduction among EC users. No serious adverse events were reported with EC use. Follow-up periods of included trials ranged from one to four years, with an average of 1.6 years. Conclusions There is limited, low-quality evidence that ECs are an effective intervention for smoking cessation and smoking reduction. The overall quality of evidence is low as it is based on a small number of studies with inconsistent and imprecise results. Due to the short follow-up periods of the included trials, the long-term safety of ECs is unclear from this review. Key messages Limited evidence that electronic cigarettes are an effective smoking cessation intervention. Further well-designed randomised controlled trials are required to investigate the efficacy of ECs for smoking cessation.


Author(s):  
Kylie Litaker ◽  
Christopher B. Mayhorn

People regularly interact with automation to make decisions. Research shows that reliance on recommendations can depend on user trust in the decision support system (DSS), the source of information (i.e. human or automation), and situational stress. This study explored how information source and stress affect trust and reliance on a DSS used in a baggage scanning task. A preliminary sample of sixty-one participants were given descriptions for a DSS and reported trust before and after interaction. The DSS gave explicit recommendations when activated and participants could choose to rely or reject the choice. Results revealed a bias towards self-reliance and a negative influence of stress on trust, particularly for participants receiving help from automation. Controlling for perceived reliability may have eliminated trust biases prior to interaction, while stress may have influenced trust during the task. Future research should address potential differences in task motivation and include physiological measures of stress.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-113
Author(s):  
Farrah Neumann ◽  
Matthew Kanwit

AbstractSince many linguistic structures are variable (i. e. conveyed by multiple forms), building a second-language grammar critically involves developing sociolinguistic competence (Canale and Swain. 1980. Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics 1(1). 1–47), including knowledge of contexts in which to use one form over another (Bayley and Langman. 2004. Variation in the group and the individual: Evidence from second language acquisition. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 42(4). 303–318). Consequently, researchers interested in such competence have increasingly analyzed the study-abroad context to gauge learners’ ability to approximate local norms following a stay abroad, due to the quality and quantity of input to which learners may gain access (Lafford. 2006. The effects of study abroad vs. classroom contexts on Spanish SLA: Old assumptions, new insights and future research directions. In Carol Klee & Timothy Face (eds.), Selected proceedings of the 7th conference on the acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as first and second languages, 1–25. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project). Nevertheless, the present study is the first to examine native or learner variation between imperative (e. g. ven ‘come’) and optative Spanish commands (e. g. que vengas ‘come’). We first performed a corpus analysis to determine the linguistic factors to manipulate in a contextualized task, which elicited commands from learners before and after four weeks abroad in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. Their overall rates of selection and predictive factors were compared to local native speakers (NSs) and a control group of at-home learners.Results revealed that the abroad learners more closely approached NS rates of selection following the stay abroad. Nonetheless, for both learner groups conditioning by independent variables only partially approximated the NS system, which was more complex than previously suggested.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762097056
Author(s):  
Morgana Lizzio-Wilson ◽  
Emma F. Thomas ◽  
Winnifred R. Louis ◽  
Brittany Wilcockson ◽  
Catherine E. Amiot ◽  
...  

Extensive research has identified factors influencing collective-action participation. However, less is known about how collective-action outcomes (i.e., success and failure) shape engagement in social movements over time. Using data collected before and after the 2017 marriage-equality debate in Australia, we conducted a latent profile analysis that indicated that success unified supporters of change ( n = 420), whereas failure created subgroups among opponents ( n = 419), reflecting four divergent responses: disengagement (resigned acceptors), moderate disengagement and continued investment (moderates), and renewed commitment to the cause using similar strategies (stay-the-course opponents) or new strategies (innovators). Resigned acceptors were least inclined to act following failure, whereas innovators were generally more likely to engage in conventional action and justify using radical action relative to the other profiles. These divergent reactions were predicted by differing baseline levels of social identification, group efficacy, and anger. Collective-action outcomes dynamically shape participation in social movements; this is an important direction for future research.


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