Aids to quitting tobacco use: how important are they outside controlled trials?

Although there is good evidence that several pharmacotherapies and counseling can effectively facilitate smoking cessation, there is little information about the use or effectiveness of these or any other quit aids outside of controlled trials.

A mailed survey with phone follow-up documented the use of various quit aids among 3,122 health plan members who smoke. A multilevel statistical modeling technique controlled for potentially confounding variables.

Nearly half (1,513) of these smokers reported a quit attempt during the preceding 6 months. Although 1,036 (33.2%) reported using some type of aid to quitting, primarily nicotine products or bupropion, 10-26% of these "users" did not report an actual quit attempt. Ninety percent of the medication users had a personal cost, averaging $53-$87. Fully 26.9% of those reporting a quit without any type of aid quit for at least 7 days. This rate equals that of users of all types of aids except for nicotine patches and bupropion, both of which had associated 7 or more day quit rates of about 46% (95% CI 39.3-52.2).

Pharmacotherapeutic quit aids are being widely used, even in the absence of significant insurance coverage.