Adherence to a blended smoking cessation treatment

Abstract

Blended face-to-face and web-based treatment is a promising way to deliver smoking cessation therapy. Little is known about adherence to blended treatment and since adherence have been shown to be a measure for treatment’s acceptability and a determinant for treatment’s effectiveness, this study explores adherence to a blended smoking cessation treatment (BSCT). Patients’ (n=75) data were analyzed to trace adherence to BSCT delivered at an outpatient smoking cessation clinic. In total, 18 patient activities were selected to assess adherence. The minimum degree of adherence to these activities, for patients who reported abstinence at 6 months after treatment initiation, was used as threshold for adherence to BSCT. Finally, predictors for being adherent were studied out of 33 person-, smoking- and health-related baseline characteristics. Patients reporting abstinence, adhered to at least 61% of BSCT activities. Applying a 60% threshold, 18% of the patients were classified as adherent to BSCT. Marital status and social modelling were independent predictors for adherence. Patients having a partner had 11-times higher odds of being adherent (OR=11.3; CI: 1.33-98.99; p=0.03). While for social modeling – graded from 0 (partner and friends are not smoking) to 8 (partner and nearly all friends are smoking) – each unit increase was associated with 28% lower odds of being adherent (OR=0.72; CI: 0.55-0.94; p=0.02). The current study is the first study exploring adherence to a blended face-to-face and web-based smoking cessation treatment (BSCT) based on a substantial group of patients. It revealed a rather low adherence rate to BSCT. Furthermore, adherence was predicted by two baseline characteristics pertaining to patients’ social environment.