Nicotine gum or patch treatment for smoking cessation and smoking reduction: a multi-centre study in Chinese physicians

Abstract

In China, around 23% of physicians (41% male, 3% female) currently smoke. Pharmacotherapy for tobacco dependence is available, but is not widely used in China. The purpose of this study was to estimate the effectiveness and the safety on smoking cessation of nicotine gum and nicotine patch in Chinese healthcare professionals. Three hundred regular smokers motivated to quit were recruited from six hospitals in China. All subjects were accepted nicotine replacement therapy, and they could choose nicotine gum (2 mg or 4 mg, depending on baseline smoking level) or nicotine patch (15 mg/16 h) for 12 weeks, with a 12-week follow-up. Limited behavioural support was provided. At Week 24, the 2--24 weeks continuous abstinence rate (verified by expired carbon monoxide) was 17%, the point prevalence abstinence rate (no smoking since the previous visit) was 35%, and 38% of subjects had continuously reduced their daily cigarette consumption by at least 50% versus baseline. Compliance with treatment was good, particularly with patch. No serious adverse event was reported, and most adverse events were mild or moderate. The most common treatment-related adverse events were gastro-intestinal (both gum and patch) and local irritation symptoms. Nicotine patch and gum were well tolerated in Chinese smokers. Abstinence rates were comparable to those previously reported with nicotine replacement therapy, and many smokers who did not quit substantially reduced their cigarette consumption.

Keywords

nicotine replacement therapy / smoking cessation / Chinese physicians

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank study team members Ulla Lantz, Karin Nordbladh, James P Ting and Ge Zhang for their excellent general study administration and data management. We thank Anne Hendrie, medical writer, for writing and editing assistance; AH received payment from McNeil AB, Sweden for this work.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

This study was supported by Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Yun Mao and John Jiangnan Liu are employees of Johnson & Johnson, Pharmaceuticals, Shanghai, Qing Li is an employee of Johnson & Johnson, New Jersey and Roland Perfekt and Elisabeth Kruse are employees of McNeil AB. Chen Wang, Dan Xiao, Nanshan Zhong, Chunxue Bai, Qingyu Xiu, Canmao Xie, and Dayi Hu have consulted for some companies with an interest in tobacco dependence treatments. Chen Wang and Dan Xiao have been investigators for some company-sponsored clinical trials, including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg