smoking cessation haveproduced mixed results. The purpose of the study was to examine whether there are gender differences in long-term smoking abstinence rates in
smokers treated with nicotine patches at a smoking cessation clinic in
Taiwan, where 39% of men and 5% of women smoke. This study included
1,065 smokers, comprising of 940 men and 125 women. Smokers were
invited to attend the clinic every 1–2 weeks for a maximum of eight visits
over 90 days, where they received prescriptions for nicotine patches,
counseling, and educational materials. Participants were contacted by
telephone at 1 and 3 years after the first visit and were asked whether they
had smoked at all over the past 7 days. The results showed that women
were significantly less likely than men to be abstinent at 1 year (adjusted
odds ratio [aOR] ? 0.64; 95% CI [confidence interval] ? [0.41, 0.99]; p ¼
.044) and 3 years (aOR ? 0.44; 95% CI ? [0.27, 0.74]; p ? .02). More
effective ways are needed to help female smokers quit in societies where
smoking in women is rare and may be associated with social stigma.
