• Ho Cheung William Li, Sophia Siu Chee Chan, Zoe Siu Fung Wan, Man Ping Wang, and Tai Hing Lam.
• School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong, 4/F, William M. W. Mong Block, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China. william3@hku.hk.
• Bmc Public Health. 2015 Jan 1; 15: 986.

BackgroundThere is a lack of population-based smoking cessation interventions targeting woman smokers in Hong Kong, and in Asia generally. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a gender-specific smoking cessation program for female smokers in Hong Kong.MethodsTo evaluate the effectiveness of the service, a total of 457 eligible smokers were recruited. After the baseline questionnaire had been completed, a cessation counseling intervention was given by a trained counselor according to the stage of readiness to quit. Self-reported seven-day point prevalence of abstinence and reduction of cigarette consumption (≥50 %) and self-efficacy in rejecting tobacco were documented at one week and at two, three and six months.ResultsThe 7-day point prevalence quit rate was 28.4 % (130/457), and 21.9 % (100/457) had reduced their cigarette consumption by at least 50 % at the six-month follow-up. The average daily cigarette consumption was reduced from 8.3 at baseline to 6.3 at six months. Moreover, both internal and external stimuli of anti-smoking self-efficacy increased from baseline to six months.ConclusionsThe study provides some evidence for the effectiveness of the gender-specific smoking cessation program for female smokers. Furthermore, helping smokers to improve their self-efficacy in resisting both internal and external stimuli of tobacco use can be a way of enhancing the effectiveness of a smoking cessation intervention.

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