Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 8;19(24):16509.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192416509.

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Telephone-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention for Qatari Residents

Vasiliki Leventakou  1 , Mohammed Al Thani  2 , Angeliki Sofroniou  2 , Hamza I Butt  3 , Safa M Eltayeb  2 , Iman A Hakim  3 , Cynthia Thomson  3 , Uma S Nair  3   4
Affiliations

Feasibility and Acceptability of a Telephone-Based Smoking Cessation Intervention for Qatari Residents

Vasiliki Leventakou et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The steady increase in smoking rates has led to a call for wide-reaching and scalable interventions for smoking cessation in Qatar. This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of an evidence-based smoking cessation program delivered by telephone for Qatari residents. A total of 248 participants were recruited through primary care centers and received five weekly scheduled proactive behavioral counseling calls from personnel trained in tobacco cessation and navigation to obtain cessation pharmacotherapy from clinics. Outcomes were assessed at end of treatment (EOT), and 1- and-3-month follow up. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the average number of participants recruited per month pre- and post-COVID. We recruited 16 participants/month, the majority (85.5%) attended at least one counselling session, and 95.4% used some of pharmacotherapy. Retention rates were 70% at EOT, 64.4% and 71.7% at 1- and 3-month follow up, respectively; 86% reported being 'extremely satisfied' by the program. Our ITT 7-day point prevalence abstinence was 41.6% at EOT, 38.4% and 39.3% at 1-and 3-month, respectively. The average number of participants recruited per month was significantly higher for pre vs. post-COVID (18.9 vs. 10.0, p-value = 0.02). Average number of participants retained at EOT per recruitment month showed a slight decrease from 8.6 pre- to 8.2 post-COVID; average number who quit smoking at EOT per recruitment month also showed a decrease from 6 to 4.6. The study results indicated that our telephone-based intervention is feasible and acceptable in this population and presents a new treatment model which can be easily disseminated to a broad population of Qatari smokers.

Keywords: Qatar; feasibility; smoking cessation; smoking quitline; tobacco control.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study population screening and enrollment flow.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pre- and post-COVID trends for recruitment, retention, and smoking quit rates.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. GT Collaborators Spatial, temporal, and demographic patterns in prevalence of smoking tobacco use and attributable disease burden in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: A systematic analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet. 2021;397:2337–2360. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01169-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic. 2017. [(accessed on 11 September 2022)]. Available online: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/255874/9789241512824-en....
    1. World Health Organization WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011: Warning about the Dangers of Tobacco. 2011. [(accessed on 11 September 2022)]. Available online: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/44616.
    1. Fouad H., Commar A., Hamadeh R.R., El-Awa F., Shen Z., Fraser C.P. Smoking prevalence in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. East. Mediterr. Health J. 2020;26:94–101. doi: 10.26719/2020.26.1.94. - DOI - PubMed
    1. AlMulla A., Mamtani R., Cheema S., Maisonneuve P., Abdullah BaSuhai J., Mahmoud G., Kouyoumjian S. Epidemiology of tobacco use in Qatar: Prevalence and its associated factors. PLoS ONE. 2021;16:e0250065. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250065. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types