Learning Objectives: Attendees will be able to describe the demographic differences in smoking cessation relapse rates.
Abstract:
Problem/Objective:C onverting individual cessation attempts into long-term abstinence remains difficult, soon after quitting. This study assesses the problem by examining relapse rates in the first year post quit attempt.
Methods: The American Smoking and Health Survey was analyzed using discrete survival techniques. Survey respondent were classified by gender, age, ethnicity, education, and insurance. For the 1293 people with quit attempts, quit length was calculated as either the longest quit time, for those who relapsed, or the length of time since last smoking, for those who have not. In order to avoid problems of sparse data, these times were reclassified into four groups: 1) less than 1 month; 2) 1-3 months; 3) 4-6 months); and 7-12 months. Models were built for each variable separately and then for all combined.
Results: By one year, nearly three quarters have relapsed. Relapse patterns were similar by gender and ethnicity. By education, the most and least educated experienced the highest relapse rates. Insured people experienced more success quitting than the uninsured. For all groups, relapse was most common in the 1-3 month period, although it remained high in subsequent periods. In the all-inclusive model, males (p=.0291) and the least educated (p=.0092) were most likely to relapse.
Conclusions: Relapse rates were higher for those groups most likely to smoke. Smokers in the higher prevalence groups also seem to have the most difficulty quitting. Also, earlier periods seem to have the greatest risk of relapse, suggesting that the first 3 months require the most intensive intervention.
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