BACKGROUND: Although more than 2000 cessation clinics were established in China, less than 10% of smokers who attempted quitting in the past 12 months visited these cessation clinics to get support. In order to improve the accessibility of cessation services, we developed the “3+1” community-based smoking cessation intervention in Yinchuan City, which includes intensive cessation counseling from trained community health center (CHC) physicians and many initiatives conducted by community workers within the communities.
METHODS: A two-arm, parallel, cluster randomized controlled trial was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a “3+1” community-based smoking cessation intervention. Twenty communities were randomized into intervention (“3+1” smoking cessation intervention) and control groups (brief smoking cessation intervention). In each community, current smokers aged eighteen and older who intended to quit within one month were recruited. Then the participants got corresponding cessation interventions according to the communities they lived in. The primary outcome was the continuous abstinence rate (CAR) in the 6-month, which was validated by the carbon monoxide test result for exhaled breath. Additionally, a 7-day point prevalence of abstinence rate (PPAR) was reported. Intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis was used in this study.
RESULTS: 704 participants from 20 communities completed the baseline survey, with 354 in the intervention group and 350 in the control group. During the trial, 688 (97.7%) completed follow-up assessment at the six months. The ITT analysis showed that at the six-month follow-up assessment, the CAR of the intervention group was 23.16%, which was significantly higher than that in the control group (3.43%) (P<0.0001). The PPAR was 29.10% in the intervention group, while 10.29% was in the control group (P<0.0001).
CONCLUSIONS: The “3+1” intensive smoking cessation intervention model in communities was effective and feasible. It suggested that this intervention model should be a part of Basic Public Health Service Program (BPHSP) and be widely used in communities.