The tenth year preliminary results of smoking cessation policlinics of Karadeniz Technical University medicine faculty

Aim: Our outpatient smoking cessation clinic was opened in April 2000. Aim of this study was to create a database for our national long-term smoking cessation rates and to share our experience. Method: We included 696 patients who had applied our smoking cessation clinic between April 2000- December 2010 years. After smoking habits and sociodemographic features of the people were asked, all the people attended to a suitable smoking cessation program. The results were analyzed by Chi-square test, Kaplan Meier survival analysis and Cox-regression analysis. Results: It was observed that 696 people containing 408 (58.6%) men and 282 (40.5%) women visited the polyclinic during this period. According to duration without smoking, women did not smoke 24.36±5.83 months and men did not smoke 21.63±4.66 months. Success rates were not different between men and women (Log Rank p=0.729) at the end of tenth years. The success rates at the end of the first, the fifth and tenth years in patients who attended smoking cessation programme were 58%, 40.6% and 31.7% respectively. We found that male gender, lack of regular income, low education level and the amount of cigarettes smoked per day were independent risk factors for restart smoking by Cox-regression analysis. Discussion: In coclusion, our smoking cessation rates have decreased over the years. Especially, male gender, low educational level, lack of regular income and high amounts of daily cigarette were reduced success rates. We think that more close follow- up of these patients might positively affect on the success rates.