Objective: As we believe adherence to smoking cessation support programs is associated with increased success of smoking cessation, we aimed to determine the factors that affect non-adherence.
Methodology:This case-control study included 550 subjects who applied to our smoking cessation clinic between the 1st June 2011 and 31st December 2011. After a one-year follow-up period subjects were separated into two groups:adherent (controls), and non-adherent (cases). Sociodemographic and clinical parameters and smoking habits were evaluated. A p value <0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Of the 550 included subjects, the rate of subjects who had resumed smoking at the one-year follow-up was 51.4% (n=282), the rate of subjects who quit was 24.2% (n=133) (controls, n=415) and the rate of subjects with unknown smoking status was 24.6% (cases, n=135). Age to start smoking was significantly low in subjects with non-adherence to the program (p=0.026). The rate of taking pharmacotherapy was significantly high in subjects with adherence (p=0.000). There was no difference between groups according to varenicline, bupropion, nicotine gum or combined therapy use, while nicotine patch use alone significantly increased the rate of non-adherence (p=0.022). Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed the age to begin smoking (p=0.045, OR: 1.05, 95%CI: 0.86-0.99) and pharmacotherapy (p=0.000, OR: 5.00, 95%CI: 2.80-8.94) were independent variables that effected adherence to the program.
Conclusions: Care should be taken in the follow-up period when providing pharmacotherapy and with subject’s who began smoking at a young age.