When will youth smokers make a quit attempt and resume smoking after receiving telephone counseling? A longitudinal study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the pattern of youth smokers who received telephone smoking cessation intervention and who would initiate a quit attempt and subsequently resume smoking. METHODS: We collected data from a toll-free smoking cessation hotline “Youth Quitline” in Hong Kong from September 2005 to December 2007. The Youth Quitline is a peer-led hotline with multiple telephone counseling sessions at baseline, 1-week and 1-month and successive telephone follow-ups at 3- and 6-months, to help youth smokers aged 12 – 25 quit smoking. We applied non-parametric Kaplan-Meier method to explore the time trend prior to initiating a quit attempt as well as smoking resumption. RESULTS: The study included 408 youth callers, and 282 started quitting within the follow-up period. About 30% of the youth smokers (95%CI = 26 ￢– 35%) would initiate a quit attempt within 7 days after receiving the baseline telephone intervention. For the 282 callers who quit within the follow-up period, two-thirds (67%, 95%CI = 44 – 56%) resumed smoking within the first 7 days after their quit attempt. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study using survival analysis techniques to evaluate how soon youth smokers initiate their quit attempts and resume smoking, after receiving telephone counseling. Youth smokers who intend to quit initiate a quit attempt shortly after receiving the telephone intervention. Smoking cessation counselors should provide subsequent follow-ups promptly after the baseline intervention to capitalize on the quitting intentions of the smokers.