18;
10 cigarettes daily
for
1 year; no other
NRT or bupropion use), and brief counseling calls were attempted to
all recipients at 3 and 14 weeks; 45% of NRT recipients received at
least one call.In recent years, New York City has raised cigarette taxes,
banned smoking in most workplaces (including restaurants and bars),
and promoted cessation through various other channels. As part of
this effort, the city’s health department offered free 6-week
courses of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to smokers who called
the state’s toll-free quitline during April 2003. Nicotine patches
were mailed to 32,093 eligible smokers (age,
18;
10 cigarettes daily
for
1 year; no other
NRT or bupropion use), and brief counseling calls were attempted to
all recipients at 3 and 14 weeks; 45% of NRT recipients received at
least one call.
Among 1305 randomly selected NRT recipients who responded to a follow-up survey at 6 months, 33% reported successfully quitting smoking (i.e., no cigarettes in the previous week). In contrast, among a comparison group of 159 smokers whose patches were undelivered because of address errors, only 6% quit. Among NRT recipients who did not quit, the proportion who smoked more than one pack daily declined significantly, from 79% to 28%. The authors estimate that at least 6000 people successfully quit smoking because of the program, at an estimated cost of $464 per quitter.
Although self-reported abstinence for 7 days is a soft endpoint, these findings suggest that free NRT, distributed by mail, can be an effective component of large-scale cessation efforts.
References:
1. Miller N et al. Effectiveness of a large-scale distribution programme of free nicotine patches: A prospective evaluation. Lancet 2005 May 28; 365:1849-54.
2. Murphy M and Aveyard P. New York City offensive against tobacco. Lancet 2005 May 28; 365:1831-2.