ASSESSMENT OF A NEW SMOKING CESSATION PROGRAM AT THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, PATHUM THANI, THAILAND

The Smoking Cessation Clinic (SCC) at Thammasat University Hospital had only 27 patients from October 2013 to September 2014 and a quit rate of only 3.7%. A new smoking cessation program was implemented at the end of 2014 to improve success rates. This new program is an interdisciplinary program that includes several health care specialists. The study aimed to examine the characteristics of the smokers and the outcomes after implementing the new program with an interdisciplinary approach at the SCC in order to gain data to improve the efficacy of the SCC. This prospective descriptive study was conducted by the SCC from December 2014 to December 2015. During the study period 111 patients attended the SCC under the new program and all were included in the survey; 100 (90.1%) were men. The mean (±SD) age of these patients was 56.5±13.5 years. The mean (±SD) age of onset of smoking was 18.5±5.5 years. Smoking cessation in the program was checked by measuring the exhaled carbon monoxide levels at 6 months after reporting smoking cessation. A level less than 10 parts per million was considered not to be a smoker. Of the 111 patients, 14 (12.6%) had reported smoking cessation and had an exhaled carbon monoxide level less than 10 parts per million. The new smoking cessation program was attended by more patients and had a higher success rate than the previous smoking cessation program, although the smoking cessation success rate was still low. Further studies are needed to determine which factors improved cessation rates and to determine other factors associated with successful smoking cessation in the study population.