The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Taiwan has integrated a new National Smoking Cessation Service (NSCS) into the health care system since September 2002. NSCS reimbursed at least 4 sessions of physician counseling with 8-week pharmacotherapy, such as NRT or bupropion, for motivated smokers each year. The study aimed to evaluate the outcomes of NSCS in its first 3-yr implementation.

Methods: This study was conducted by analyzing the data retrieved from National Health Insurance and National Smoking Cessation Service in Taiwan. Telephone survey was also performed to randomly selected subjects to understand their 6-month abstinence after participation of the service.

Results: In Taiwan, 1,858(19.77%) of 9,398 primary care settings or hospital-based outpatient clinics have joined NSCS project since Sep 2002. In Oct 2005, there were 2,987 physicians who were able to deliver smoking cessation service in their offices. NCSC has recruited 103,757 motivated smokers undertaking cessation aid by self-referral or health professionals' referral. The male/female ratio was 87.6%/12.4%. The mean age of the subjects was 46.0±15.2 years old with smoking duration of 22.5±13.7 years, daily smoking amount of 25.1±11.8 cigarettes, and mean Fagerstrom Tolerance Scores of 7.0±2.1 (0-11). Most of the subjects did not complete adequate counseling and pharmacotherapy as recommended for effective cessation. In average, the subjects received only 2.11 sessions of counseling with 2.44-week of NRT or bupropion. The 6-month point abstinence rate was 21.37% by self-report, with 4,250 subjects who claimed no single puff in past one week before telephone contact among randomly selected 19,899 subjects.