Helping people quit remains a challenge

Over half the people who stopped smoking for a year during a trial of nicotine replacement therapy were still not smoking eight years later, according to a study in this week's BMJ. But these long-term quitters represented only 5% of all those who had entered the trial, suggesting a need to find more effective ways to help people to give up smoking.

A total of 1,625 general practice patients smoking at least 15 cigarettes a day took part in a trial of the nicotine patch in 1991-2, of whom 840 completed a follow-up questionnaire about smoking in 1999-2000. It was assumed that those lost to follow up were still smoking.

Of the 153 (9%) patients who had stopped smoking for a year in the original trial, 83 were still not smoking at follow up, giving an eight year abstinence rate of 5% and a relapse rate of 46%. Although the patch increased the odds of quitting for eight years by 39%, this increase was not statistically significant.

Of the 1,472 who did not quit for a year in the trial, 89 (6%) had not smoked for a year or more at follow up. Overall at follow up therefore, 11% of trial participants had not smoked for a year or more. Another 2% had quit for less than a year, and 88% were still smoking.

Finding more effective ways to help people give up smoking remains an ongoing challenge.

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