Tomson Tanja, Björnström Catrine, Gilljam Hans, Helgason Asgeir
Stockholm Center for Public Health, Tobacco Prevention, Box 175 33, 118 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
BMC Public Health. 2005 May 23;5:52. doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-5-52.
In evaluation of smoking cessation programs including surveys and clinical trials the tradition has been to treat non-responders as smokers. The aim of this paper is to assess smoking behaviour of non-responders in an evaluation of the Swedish national tobacco cessation quitline a nation-wide, free of charge service.
A telephone interview survey with a sample of people not participating in the original follow-up. The study population comprised callers to the Swedish quitline who had consented to participate in a 12 month follow-up but had failed to respond. A sample of 84 (18% of all non-responders) was included. The main outcome measures were self-reported smoking behaviour at the time of the interview and at the time of the routine follow-up. Also, reasons for not responding to the original follow-up questionnaire were assessed. For statistical comparison between groups we used Fischer's exact test, odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) on proportions and OR.
Thirty-nine percent reported to have been smoke-free at the time they received the original questionnaire compared with 31% of responders in the original study population. The two most common reasons stated for not having returned the original questionnaire was claiming that they had returned it (35%) and that they had not received the questionnaire (20%). Non-responders were somewhat younger and were to a higher degree smoke-free when they first called the quitline.
Treating non-responders as smokers in smoking cessation research may underestimate the true effect of cessation treatment.
在包括调查和临床试验在内的戒烟项目评估中，传统做法是将未回应者视为吸烟者。本文旨在评估瑞典国家戒烟热线（一项全国性免费服务）评估中未回应者的吸烟行为。
对未参与最初随访的人群样本进行电话访谈调查。研究人群包括拨打瑞典戒烟热线且同意参与12个月随访但未回应的来电者。纳入了84个样本（占所有未回应者的18%）。主要结局指标是访谈时和常规随访时自我报告的吸烟行为。此外，还评估了未回应最初随访问卷的原因。为进行组间统计比较，我们对比例和比值比（OR）使用了费舍尔精确检验、比值比（OR）和95%置信区间（CI）。
39%的人报告在收到最初问卷时已戒烟，而最初研究人群中回应者的这一比例为31%。未返还最初问卷最常提及的两个原因是声称已返还（35%）和未收到问卷（20%）。未回应者年龄稍小，首次拨打戒烟热线时无烟的比例更高。
在戒烟研究中将未回应者视为吸烟者可能会低估戒烟治疗的真实效果。
