A Large-scale Follow-up Study of Smokers Visiting Medical Facilities in Japan

In order to determine smoking cessation rates among those who visit medical facilities in Japan, a large-scale follow-up study was conducted. Subjects were self-reported smokers who visited a cancer hospital, a general hospital, or one of four health checkup facilities in 1997-98. Their smoking habits were followed by two postal surveys. The first was two months after the visit to hospital or attendance at a health checkup screening, and the second was after one year. In total, 3,552 smokers participated in the present study; 1,131 first visit outpatients at a cancer hospital, 214 first visit outpatients at a general hospital, and 2,207 examinees at four health checkup facilities. The response rate for the first follow-up varied from 57.3% to 80.2% of the eligible participants in the six facilities, and that for the second from 50.0 to 67.1%. When non-respondents were classified as non-quitters, the cessation rate two months after their participation was 11.7% (95% confidence interval, 7.4-16.0%) for the general hospital and 2.7% (2.1-3.5%) for the four health checkup facilities, and those after one year were 9.8% (6.2-14.6%) and 6.0% (5.1-7.1%), respectively. In the cancer hospital, the rate for self-reported cancer patients was 74.6% (68.5-80.0%) after two months and 51.3% (44.7-57.9%) one year later. The smoking cessation rate was thus smaller in the health checkup examinees than in the patients. Outpatients seemed to be more amenable to smoking cessation, and therefore may constitute a more appropriate target for cessation programs.