Evaluation of a smoking cessation program implemented in the workplace

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a smoking cessation program, known as "Smoke Busters." A quasi-experimental design was used. The experimental group consisted of 35 workers (33 males and 2 females) who smoked and volunteered to take part in the program held at a chemical company. Thirty five age-, sex-, and job category-matched smokers who did not participate in the program were used as controls. The program consisted of 6 sessions held over a period of 6 months. The sessions were organized in a workshop style, with 6 groups, each consisting of 5-6 participants, meeting for 2 hr during working hours. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated by the abstinence rate among the participants at one year after the start of the program. The abstinence rates of the experimental group and control group were 22.9% and 5.7%, respectively. Thus net abstinence rate was 17.2%. Given that 13% is considered as a reasonable benchmark for assessing the effectiveness of smoking cessation programs based on the results of the studies conducted in North America, one-year abstinence rate of 17% in this study, though not statistically significant (0.05 < p < 0.1) encourages larger experiments.