Romani Maya, Nakkash Rima, Jawhar Sarah, Salloum Ramzi G
Department of Family Medicine, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
Department of Health Promotion and Community Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Tob Induc Dis. 2020 Sep 8;18:75. doi: 10.18332/tid/125916. eCollection 2020.
Despite the exceptionally high prevalence of tobacco use in Lebanon, few cessation programs exist. The American University of Beirut (AUB) developed one of the first smoking-cessation programs in the country in 2015, and the program became free-of-charge to patients in 2018. The program offers initial visit(s) with a primary care provider, in-person and/or telephone counseling, acupuncture, and medications.
We assessed patient characteristics, treatments used, and patient outcomes in the first year of implementing the free smoking-cessation program, compared to the original program. We compared 87 smokers who initiated treatment in the free program with 47 patients in the original program.
At baseline, smokers in the free program were younger, smoked fewer cigarettes per day, and had lower CO levels than smokers in the original program. At 1 month follow-up, 72.9% were abstinent in the free program, compared with 42.2% in the original program (p<0.001). Smokers who had ≥2 primary care visits and those who had ≥1 acupuncture visits had higher rates of abstinence at 1 month and those who were prescribed bupropion had higher rates of abstinence at 12 months.
Implementation of the free smoking cessation program demonstrates preliminary efficacy, with telephone support offering potential for scalability.
尽管黎巴嫩的烟草使用率极高，但戒烟项目却很少。贝鲁特美国大学（AUB）于2015年在该国开展了首批戒烟项目之一，并于2018年对患者免费。该项目提供与初级保健提供者的初次就诊、面对面和/或电话咨询、针灸以及药物治疗。
我们评估了免费戒烟项目实施第一年的患者特征、所采用的治疗方法以及患者的治疗效果，并与原项目进行了比较。我们将87名在免费项目中开始治疗的吸烟者与原项目中的47名患者进行了比较。
在基线时，免费项目中的吸烟者比原项目中的吸烟者更年轻，每天吸烟量更少，一氧化碳水平更低。在1个月的随访中，免费项目中有72.9%的人戒烟，而原项目中这一比例为42.2%（p<0.001）。进行了≥2次初级保健就诊的吸烟者以及接受了≥1次针灸治疗的吸烟者在1个月时的戒烟率更高，而服用安非他酮的吸烟者在12个月时的戒烟率更高。
免费戒烟项目的实施显示出初步疗效，电话支持具有扩大规模的潜力。
