Offering nicotine patches to all households in a community with high smoking rates: Pilot test of a population-based approach to promote tobacco cessation.

John A Cunningham,Rachel Tyndale,Michael Chaiton,Christina Schell,Scott T Leatherdale,Alexandra Godinho

doi:10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1400

Abstract

BackgroundThe objective of this project is to determine the effectiveness of targeting a community with a high smoking rate with the distribution of free-of-charge nicotine patches in order to promote tobacco cessation.Methods/DesignOne small community with an elevated smoking rate (compared to national and provincial averages) has been identified. All households in the community will be sent a letter offering one smoker (18 years or older; 10 or more cigarettes per day) in the household a free-of-charge mailed five-week supply of nicotine patches (up to a total of 800 five-week kits will be available for distribution). Participants receiving nicotine patches will be asked to complete a six-month follow-up survey assessing tobacco cessation defined as 30-day point prevalence abstinence. In addition, attempts will be made to employ ongoing national population surveys containing cigarette smoking variables to compare changes in smoking prevalence in the target community to other communities with similar characteristics.DiscussionWe will examine whether the concentrated distribution of mailed nicotine patches will result in a measurable reduction in smoking rates in the target community. If demonstrated, this would provide support for the targeted population-level distribution of an effective individual-level public health intervention.Clinical Trials registrationNCT04534231

Highlights

MethodsOne of the potentially important considerations for tobacco control initiatives is that there is regional variation in rates of smoking
This variation is important because targeting interventions to communities with higher smoking rates may be an effective means of maximizing the impact of limited public health resources and result in a substantial increase in the number of people quitting smoking
A randomized controlled trial has demonstrated that nicotine patches delivered by postal mail promote higher rates of short-term (6 months) tobacco cessation compared to a no intervention control group (30-day abstinence: 7.6% vs. 3.0%; odds ratio (OR), 2.65; 95% CI, 1.44 - 4.89, p = 0.002) [11]

Summary

Introduction

MethodsOne of the potentially important considerations for tobacco control initiatives is that there is regional variation in rates of smoking. There appears to be variation by regions within a province as well, with smoking rates ranging from 15.4% to 44.7% between municipalities in the province of Ontario [3] This variation is important because targeting interventions to communities with higher smoking rates may be an effective means of maximizing the impact of limited public health resources and result in a substantial increase in the number of people quitting smoking. In the present project, we seek to determine if concentrating this distribution to an area that has a higher rate of tobacco smoking leads to a significant impact on the cessation rate in the community under study The objective of this project is to determine the effectiveness of targeting a community with a high smoking rate with the distribution of free-of-charge nicotine patches in order to promote tobacco cessation

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion