Factors Correlated with Smoking Cessation Success in Older Adults: A Retrospective Cohort Study in Taiwan

Chih-Po Chang, Wei-Hsin Huang, Ching-Hui You, Lee-Ching Hwang, I-Jung Lu and Hsin-Lung Chan
Additional contact information
Chih-Po Chang: Department of Family Medicine, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Wei-Hsin Huang: Department of Family Medicine, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Ching-Hui You: Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Municipal Wanfang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei 116, Taiwan
Lee-Ching Hwang: Department of Family Medicine, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei 106, Taiwan
I-Jung Lu: Department of Leisure and Recreation Management, Chihlee University of Technology, New Taipei City 252, Taiwan
Hsin-Lung Chan: Department of Family Medicine, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei 106, Taiwan

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 18, 1-9

Abstract: Smoking cessation in the elderly is very important. This study aims to explore the success rate of smoking cessation in the elderly and the factors that predict the success of smoking cessation. We collected data from smokers ≥60 years who visited a medical center in Taiwan during 2017. All patients were prescribed either varenicline or nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for smoking cessation. The participants were asked about their smoking status after treatment. In total, 129 participants were enrolled. The three- or six-month point abstinence rate was 48.1%. No significant difference was found among baseline characteristics (including age, gender, underlying diseases, smoking duration, daily consumption amount of cigarette, carbon monoxide concentration, Fagerström test for nicotine dependence scores, and treatment method) between quitters and non-quitters, except for the type of medication used. The proportion of quitters using varenicline was significantly higher than that of non-quitters. Multivariate regression analyses showed that the patients who received varenicline were 3.22 times more likely to quit smoking than those who received NRT. Therefore, we suggest that varenicline use may help in smoking cessation in older adults, compared to NRT. Other baseline characteristics may not affect the success rate of smoking cessation in this population.

Keywords: nicotine replacement therapy; smoke cessation; predictor; varenicline; older smoker (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/18/3462/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/18/3462/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:18:p:3462-:d:268138

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().