Smoking quit rates among patients receiving pharmacist-provided pharmacotherapy and telephonic smoking cessation counseling

Abstract

Objectives: Tobacco use is the nation's leading cause of preventable illness and death, causing a significant burden on the health care system. Many cessation pharmacotherapy treatment options are available to help smokers quit, including nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) and prescription medications. Research indicates that pharmacists are able to provide a positive benefit to smokers who want to quit through pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions. The aim of the present work was to examine the quit rates among participants who received smoking cessation pharmacotherapy and pharmacist-provided telephone-based quit counseling services.

Design: Retrospective database review of enrolled participants.

Setting: Telephone-based pharmacotherapy and medication counseling services offered from a medication management center.

Participants: State employees who voluntarily contacted a medication management center for smoking cessation services after receiving promotional flyers.

Main outcome measures: Long-term quit rates at 7 and 13 months were determined by means of patient self-report in response to questioning. Smoking cessation was considered to be a success if the patient reported not smoking for the past 30 days.

Results: A total of 238 participants were included in the review. Thirty-nine participants completed the program after the first treatment, 12 participants after the second treatment, and 4 participants after the third treatment. Two patients completed the program more than once. Eighty-five participants (36%) reported results at 7-month follow-up; of these, 43 (51%) were smoking free. A total of 44 participants (18%) reported results at 13-month follow-up; of these, 24 participants (55%) reported being smoking free. There were no significant differences in the percentages of smoking-free participants at 7 or 13 months, regardless of their first treatment (P = 0.06 and 0.345, respectively).

Conclusion: Successful quit rates were higher than previously demonstrated with other telephone-based smoking cessation programs. Therefore, pharmacist-provided telephone-based counseling may be beneficial in helping patients to quit smoking. Future research is warranted to examine the benefits of these types of programs.