Abstract
Smoking cessation in the elderly is very important. This study aims to explore the success rate of smoking cessation in the elderly and the factors that predict the success of smoking cessation. We collected data from smokers ≥60 years who visited a medical center in Taiwan during 2017. All patients were prescribed either varenicline or nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for smoking cessation. The participants were asked about their smoking status after treatment. In total, 129 participants were enrolled. The three- or six-month point abstinence rate was 48.1%. No significant difference was found among baseline characteristics (including age, gender, underlying diseases, smoking duration, daily consumption amount of cigarette, carbon monoxide concentration, Fagerström test for nicotine dependence scores, and treatment method) between quitters and non-quitters, except for the type of medication used. The proportion of quitters using varenicline was significantly higher than that of non-quitters. Multivariate regression analyses showed that the patients who received varenicline were 3.22 times more likely to quit smoking than those who received NRT. Therefore, we suggest that varenicline use may help in smoking cessation in older adults, compared to NRT. Other baseline characteristics may not affect the success rate of smoking cessation in this population.
Highlights
Tobacco use has a significant negative public health impact by reducing life expectancy by about15 years [1,2], with 70% of all smoking-related deaths occurring in people older than 60 years [3].A previous study reveals that older smokers are two times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than non-smokers, their risk of acute coronary events is double, and their risk of stroke is1.5-fold higher that of non-smokers [4]
We found no significant differences in terms of gender, body weight, daily consumption amount of cigarette, smoking pack-years, exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) concentration, FTND score, treatment method, and the presence of underlying systemic disease between the patients who received varenicline and those who received nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)
The elderly group were more acceptable to oral medication since they had more underlying comorbidities treated with oral medications, which decreased the barrier of varenicline use on smoking cessation
Summary
Tobacco use has a significant negative public health impact by reducing life expectancy by about15 years [1,2], with 70% of all smoking-related deaths occurring in people older than 60 years [3].A previous study reveals that older smokers are two times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than non-smokers, their risk of acute coronary events is double, and their risk of stroke is1.5-fold higher that of non-smokers [4]. Tobacco use has a significant negative public health impact by reducing life expectancy by about. A previous study reveals that older smokers are two times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than non-smokers, their risk of acute coronary events is double, and their risk of stroke is. According to statistics from the National Health Service of Taiwan in 2017, about 20% of smokers were older than 60 years, making smoke cessation in the elderly an important issue. Smoking cessation has proven benefits for the elderly, including increased life expectancy by about three years at the age of 60 [5], and reduced risk of coronary heart disease and stroke between the ages of 65 and 79 [6]. Public Health 2019, 16, 3462; doi:10.3390/ijerph16183462 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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