Factors Associated with Successful Smoking Cessation in Tunisian Smokers: Findings from the Smoking Cessation Clinic in the University Hospital of Sahloul, Sousse, Tunisia

Aims: To identify the determinants of successful smoking cessation among the attendees of the smoking cessation clinic of the University Hospital of Sahloul.

Place and Duration of the Study: The smoking cessation clinic of the University Hospital of Sahloul and the the Department of prevention and safety of care, University Hospital Sahloul, Sousse, Tunisia.

Type of the Study: Retrospective study.

Methodology: This study included all the attendees of the smoking cessation clinic of the University Hospital of Sahloul (n=423) from 2009 to 2014. The monitoring of the attendees was performed until October 2015 in order to verify their smoking cessation status at one year.

Results: The participants were predominantly male (n=394, 93.4%). Their mean age was 41.5 ± 13.6 years. The mean number of daily smoked cigarettes is 27.18 ± 14.50 cigarettes. The mean score of the Fagerström test was 6.13 ± 2.39.The smoking cessation rates were 30.70%, 23.40%, 15.10%, 12.8% and 10.4% respectively at one week, one month, three months, six months and at twelve months. In the multivariate analysis, being married, being a smoker for less than 10 years, having an exhaled CO<10 ppm, being confident in quitting and attending the clinic three visits and more were independent factors associated with smoking cessation at 12 months.

Conclusion: Management of smoking cessation consultation needs to take an integrative approach focusing on the identified factors in order to improve current success rates.