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A Naturalistic Study of an Australian Smoking Cessation Model in a Victorian Community Health Service With 12-Month Follow-Up

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Christine Buckley*
Affiliation:
Colac Area Health, Colac, Victoria, Australia. [email protected]
Diane O'Dowd
Affiliation:
Colac Area Health, Colac, Victoria, Australia.
Katherine Gannon
Affiliation:
Colac Area Health, Colac, Victoria, Australia.
Mark Brennan
Affiliation:
Colac Area Health, Colac, Victoria, Australia.
*
*Address for correspondence: Christine Buckley, Colac Area Health, 2–28 Connor Street, Colac VIC 3250, Australia.

Abstract

The current practice of treating smokers as a homogenous group fails to recognise and adequately address the vast range (10–80ng/mL) of nicotine plasma levels (Russell, 1990) found among smokers. The Bittoun Model (Bittoun, 2006) individualises treatment according to the level of nicotine dependency. A total of 115 participants were enrolled in a 12-month program review based on the Bittoun Combination Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) Algorithm (Bittoun, 2006). Participants found to be non nicotine dependent (Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence [FTND] = 0) (Heatherton et al., 1991) were excluded from the study. At 3 months, 52% (n = 99) of participants were total abstainers (self-reporting and expired CO ≤ 5ppm). Outcomes at 6 months (n = 58) and 12 months (n = 18; self-reporting) were 48% and 33% respectively. The Bittoun Model of Smoking Cessation offers an efficacious strategy for the assessment, management and delivery of tobacco intervention for the hard to treat smoker.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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