Breaking the hurdle with three tobacco cessation interventions in your life: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: The escalating burden of noncommunicable ailments has imposed a major public health challenge. Smoking tobacco has claimed over 3 million lives worldwide and is the first and foremost source of morbidity among all age groups. Multimodal interventions ought to be infused in to revert the addicted individuals to better life. Aim: This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of three different tobacco termination interventions in patients attached to the outpatient unit of a health-care institute. Materials and Methods: A tobacco cessation interventional study was performed on those patients who were randomly allocated to three different study groups composed of counseling group (Group I), nicotine replacement therapy group (Group II), and a combination of the both (Group III). For this, a carbon monoxide (CO) monitoring device, “Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence,” and specially prepared structured questionnaires were utilized. The interventions were planned and observations were assessed at baseline (preintervention) and at 12th week (postintervention). Intra- and inter-group comparisons were carried out statistically by means of one-way ANOVA test with post hoc pair-wise comparisons using Tukey's test. Results: The highest significant (P ≤ 0.05) mean nicotine addiction score variation of 2.44 from pre- to post-intervention was noted among Group III patients and intragroup comparison revealed a similar significant variance among Group III patients, i.e., 3.68 mean at baseline which reduced to 1.24 at follow-up. Inter- and intra-group assessments of mean score differences in the level of CO were noted to be highest among Group III patients. Conclusion: Even though the utilization of the pharmacologic methodologies available for smoking termination substantively mends the likelihood of realizing efficacious abstinence, the best upshots for cessation are accomplished when pharmacologic techniques are combined with behavioral means to treatment as the modus operandi of tobacco dependence counseling.

Keywords

• Interventions
• nicotine
• oral health
• public health
• tobacco