• Maha Ghanem.
• Chest. 2014 Mar 1;145(3 Suppl):617A.

Session TitleTobacco Cessation and PreventionSESSION TYPE: Slide PresentationsPRESENTED ON: Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 12:15 PM - 01:15 PMPURPOSE: A number of non-pharmacological approaches to smoking cessation have been developed with varying degree of success. Intensive anti-smoking counselling remains to be evaluated in countries with limited budget for nicotine replacement therapy; hence this study aimed to define the role of intensive antismoking counselling in taking patients off tobacco in a low-income country.MethodsTwo hundreds fifty five male smokers, aged 16 50 years were randomly classified into two groups: the control group [Group I, 130 smokers] that was subjected to standard clinical practice and short (1 to 3 minutes) sporadic sessions of unstructured medical antismoking advice, and the intervention group [Group II, 125 smokers] who were subjected to intensive anti-smoking counselling program with three follow up visits for reinforcement of abstinence. Main measurement: Self-reported tobacco abstinence at 6 months. Other measurements: personal details, medical and smoking history; date of first giving up and symptoms of tobacco withdrawal.ResultsThe rate of continuous abstinence at 6 months was 22.8% for the intervention versus 6.7% for the control group (p<0.000). In subgroup analyses, effectiveness of the intervention did not vary substantially with age, tobacco dependence, number of cigarettes smoked per day, number of years of tobacco consumption, degree of desire to quit smoking, time spent with smokers, subjective health, and presence of tobacco related symptoms.ConclusionsIntensive out-patient anti-smoking counselling is an effective approach for smoking cessation in low income countries.Clinical ImplicationsAdvice and encouragement are cost-effective methods for smoking cessation. By increasing smokers' knowledge of smoking hazards, providing support, integrated smoking cessation team can help the majority of smokers who want to quit.DisclosureThe following authors have nothing to disclose: Maha GhanemNo Product/Research Disclosure Information.

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