PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Thomas Ringbæk AU - Heidi Spillemose AU - Gerda Nielsen AU - Lise-Lotte Hergel AU - Dorte Wedell-Wedellsborg AU - Mette Strand AU - Peter Bo Poulsen TI - Escape smoke - real-life effectiveness of smoking cessation therapy in general practice in Denmark DP - 2014 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - P4456 VI - 44 IP - Suppl 58 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4456.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4456.full SO - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44 AB - BackgroundThe smoking prevalence has not decreased the last year with 17% daily smokers in Denmark. General practice (GP) is, together with the municipalities, important for offering effective smoking cessation (SC) therapy to motivated smokers.AimsTo evaluate the real-life effectiveness of SC-therapy for daily smokers (counseling and/or SC-medication) among GP-clinics in Denmark.MethodsIn a multi-centre, observational, non-drug, non-interventional study, Danish GP-clinics with clinical staff (nurses) and procedures for SC-therapy recruited daily smokers motivated for quitting smoking. As per usual clinical practice SC-medication could be nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or prescription-based SC-medication (varenicline or bupropion). Primary endpoint was the share of patients not smoking six months after the quit date (intention to treat).ResultsForty GP-clinics recruited 515 (273 females/242 males, 20% with COPD) daily smokers being moderately nicotine dependent and heavy smoking with 32 years of smoking 19 cigarettes per day on average. Receiving intensive advice 76% did use SC-medication paid out-of-pocket (22% NRT and 57% prescription-based). After 6 months 187 participants were still abstinent (36%). Use of SC- medication resulted in a significant higher quit rate (39%) than without (28%) (P=0.022), and choice of prescription-based SC-medication resulted in the highest quit rate (43%) - significantly higher than those choosing NRT (31%) (P=0.029).ConclusionsSmoking cessation in Danish general practice clinics with some prior SC-activity can result in rather high long-term quit rates. This is especially the case when counseling and SC-medication are combined.