Brief advice to tuberculosis patients in Nepal to stop smoking: a pilot study by the Britain Nepal Medical Trust
OBJECTIVE: To determine smoking cessation rates among TB patients advised to quit.
DESIGN: One intervention and one control centre were studied. At the intervention centre, brief advice about smoking and cessation was given at the start of anti-tuberculosis treatment, and repeated 2 and 5 months later. After 6 months of standard treatment, patients were asked about quitting. Expired air carbon monoxide (CO) was measured in those claiming 6 months of abstinence.
RESULTS: None of the 51 controls achieved 6 months of abstinence, whereas 77 (39%) of the 195 in the intervention group claimed at least 6 months of abstinence. All claims were verified by CO measurement in expired air (95%CI 31.4–47.6, P < 0.0001 for the difference in smoking cessation).
CONCLUSION: Brief advice on smoking cessation to patients starting anti-tuberculosis treatment in the National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) setting in Eastern Nepal led to 39% quitting for least 6 months. Our results should encourage randomised trials in smokers with TB in Nepal: if substantiated, smoking cessation advice should become a mandatory component of the NTP.
Keywords: Nepal; TB patients; quitting smoking
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Llandough Hospital, Cardiff, Britain Nepal Medical Trust, Tonbridge, UK 2: Britain Nepal Medical Trust, Biratnagar, Nepal 3: Britain Nepal Medical Trust, Tonbridge, UK, Deptartment of Public Health, Lambeth and Southwark Councils, London 4: University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Publication date: 01 December 2014
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