Moderators of real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids: a population study.

Introduction:
This text is a summary of a population study on the real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids and how they are influenced by the smoker's characteristics such as cigarette addiction, socioeconomic status, age, and sex. The study uses data from a large, nationally representative survey in England and aims to provide information that can be used to tailor recommendations on cessation aids to those most likely to help the user achieve abstinence.

Key Points:

* The study found that use of e-cigarettes and varenicline is associated with higher abstinence rates following a quit attempt in England.
* Use of prescription NRT was also associated with higher abstinence rates, but only in older smokers, and use of websites only in smokers from lower socioeconomic status.
* The study did not find significant benefits of using other cessation aids.
* The study used data from the Smoking Toolkit Study, an ongoing national surveillance programme that involves surveys of nationally representative samples of adults in England every month.
* The study included respondents who smoked cigarettes or any other tobacco product daily or occasionally at the time of the survey or during the preceding 12 months and had made at least one quit attempt in the preceding 12 months.
* The outcome variable was self-reported continuous abstinence from the start of the most recent quit attempt up to the time of survey.
* The independent variables were self-reported use or not of smoking cessation aids in the most recent quit attempt.
* The covariates included level of cigarette addiction, time since the quit attempt started, number of prior quit attempts in the past year, whether the quit attempt was planned, whether the respondent quit abruptly versus gradually, age, sex, social grade, and month and year of the survey.

Main Message:
The study provides valuable information on the real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids and how they are influenced by the smoker's characteristics. This information can be used to tailor recommendations on cessation aids to those most likely to help the user achieve abstinence. The study found that use of e-cigarettes and varenicline is associated with higher abstinence rates following a quit attempt in England, but other cessation aids did not show significant benefits. The study also found that use of prescription NRT was associated with higher abstinence rates in older smokers and use of websites in smokers from lower socioeconomic status. Overall, the study highlights the importance of considering the smoker's characteristics when recommending cessation aids and the potential benefits of using e-cigarettes and varenicline in quit attempts.

Jackson SE, Kotz D, West R, Brown J. Moderators of real-world effectiveness of smoking cessation aids: a population study. addiction (abingdon, England). 2019;114(9):1627-1638. doi:10.1111/add.14656