Did Korean smoking cessation clinic reduce smoking inequalities?
| Author(s)
Hong-Jun Cho, Kyunghee Jung-Choi and Yu-Seon Yang
| | Presenter(s) |
Professor Hong-Jun Cho Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan, College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea | Abstract Korean Smoking Cessation Clinic started in 253 health centers in South Korea in 2004. However, there is no evaluation whether it has reduced smoking inequalities. Data on demographic profiles, registration, 4-week quit rate of the subjects from 25 smoking cessation clinics in Seoul, capital city of South Korea, were collected from service performance monitoring data. Smoking data by deprivation category obtained from 5 rounds of Community Health Survey from 2008 to 2012 were used to estimate smoking prevalence by deprivation quintiles.
Of 38,320 smokers (male 34077, female 4243) who used the Smoking Cessation Clinic in 2012, 37,096 (96.8%) decided to quit smoking. The self-reported 4-week quit rates of the least deprived quintile were 88.1% for male and 88.6% for female, which were higher than those of the most deprived quintiles (86.4% for male and 84.1% for female). Percents of 4-week quitters among smokers were 2.05% for male and 3.30% for female among the least deprived areas, which were greater than the most deprived areas (1.59% for male and 2.03% for female).
Korean Smoking Cessation Clinic Program did not reduce smoking inequality, even it tended to aggravate it. The program should be reformed to target more deprived smokers.
| Presenter biography Hong-Jun Cho: He a professor of department of family medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine. He is in charge of smoking cessation clinic in Asan Medical Center.
Kyunghee Jung-Choi: She is a professor of department of preventive medicine, Ewha Woman’s University College of Medicine.
Yu-Seon Yang: She is a researcher of tobacco control team, Korea Health Promotion Foundation. She is in charge of monitoring Korean Smoking Cessation Program.
| Source of funding: None
| Declaration of interest: None
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