[Outpatient smoking cessation: a report on 3,260 cases]

A total number of 3,260 smokers were included into a 4-week smoking cessation programme of the Regional Sickness Fund of Lower Austria in which participants were coached by health care professionals. The smoking status of each subject, as determined by measuring expired CO, resulted in a success rate of 70.6% (non-smokers and persons with smoking reduction). Success rates were emerged to increase with decreasing level of baseline nicotine dependence (determined with the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence = FTND). Even in the group of heavily dependent smokers, however, (FTND Score 8-10) a non-smoking rate of 33.9% was achieved. Moreover, an additional 27.6% of the persons of this group had reduced the number of cigarettes smoked daily. The positive effect of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) could be demonstrated by the high rate of 69.3% non-smokers in this group of participants, which was clearly higher than in participants who did not use NRT.