Gender difference of the effects of medical therapy for smoking cessation: The experience of health promotion program at Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

Background. The aim of this study is to assess whether there were gender difference in the effects of medical therapy for smoking cessation according to the hospital-based study in Taipei, Taiwan.
Methods. A nationwide tobacco control practice was conducted in 2002 by Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health Taiwan. Cheng-Hsin General Hospital is one of the smoking cessation units in this health promotion program. All the participants were visited at outpatient department (OPD) and further evaluated by a structured questionnaire included personal information, disease history, dependence on nicotine, and outcome evaluation. To evaluate the effect of cessation program, routine phone interviews in third, sixth, and twelve month were performed. The smokers had smoking behavior in last seven days by phone interview were defined as smoking cessation failure.
Results. There were four hundred and twenty-seven subjects visited OPD for smoking cessation during 2002-2007 at Cheng-Hsin General Hospital. Three hundred and twenty-six subjects completed the three telephone interviews with 76.3% follow-up rate. The three-month, six-month, and twelve-month continuous success rate of smoking cessation were 33.6%, 23.7%, 19.5% in male and 35.9%, 28.1%, 26.6 % in female, respectively. From the multiple logistic regression, side effect or withdrawal symptoms was a significant factor of smoking cessation in both males (OR=3.04, 95%CI: 1.34-6.89) and females (OR=3.91, 95%CI: 1.22-12.58). The smoking cessation was also strongly affected by nicotine addiction in male (severe vs mild or moderate, OR=0.41, 95%CI: 0.22-0.78) but not in female.
Conclusions. Gender differences in the effects of medical therapy for smoking cessation were demonstrated in the present study. Follow-up study should be conducted to explore the long term effects and side effects such as psychological symptoms of the health promotion program.