A health coach-led smoking cessation program was implemented in a community of immigrant Chinese Americans. Follow-up was provided face-to-face or over-the-phone to provide support and address barriers. Free nicotine replacement treatment was provided for eligible participants.

The aim is to assess smoking cessation outcome by program components.

Quitting was defined as self-reported smoking abstention for at least 3 months. Factors contributing to successful cessation were evaluated using chi-squared tests and regression analysis. Participants were randomly surveyed to measure the helpfulness of and satisfaction with the program.

The program enrolled 184 participants from November 2015 to January 2017. Participants were mostly men (89%) with a mean age of 44. An intent-to-treat analysis found that 19% quit. Phone counseling had the same success as face-to-face counseling. Each additional session attended was associated with 2.1 times the odds of quitting, P < 0.001. Among the participants who quit, 70% reported the health coach was helpful in their cessation.

A health coach-led smoking cessation program that offered phone-based counseling was successful in reducing smoking. Future programs should consider using a health coach to reduce physician burden and phone-based counseling for difficult-to-access patients to increase program reach.