Smoking cessation: Gender on the agenda

This study describes gender-specific predictors of outcome among cigarette smokers (251 women and 127 men) who attended a cessation programme in a specialized outpatient clinic in Stockholm, Sweden, 1990-1992. The after-treatment smoking behaviour was reported in a telephone interview in 1997. Both continuous abstinence and abstinence at the end of the follow-up period were considered as study outcomes. At follow-up 40% of the participants were non-smokers; 18% had been so continuously after participation in the cessation programme. The abstinence status did not differ significantly between genders, while some of its predictors did. In a multivariate analysis, high motivation at baseline compared with low motivation was linked to a fourfold increase in the likelihood of continuous abstinence among men. Among women, the likelihood of abstinence was halved when smoking at baseline was more than 15 cigarettes per day compared with less, and if they had children compared with the childless. Childbirth during the study period, however, increased the probability of abstinence. The inclusion of gender-specific interventions may increase the probability of long-term abstinence following smoking cessation programmes.