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HK's female smoking cessation program effective

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-02 21:23

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's first ever female smoking cessation program was effective by reaching a quit rate of about 24 percent, according to the University of Hong Kong, which made the result public on Monday.

The program, established by the university's Faculty of Medicine and some ten local organizations, provided the first tailor-made smoking cessation service for female smokers in Hong Kong.

It was launched in November 2006, and up to December 2008, 274 female smokers who had received participated in the program were eligible for a three-month follow up. They were averagely aged 35.

Findings of the follow up survey revealed a total of 66 participants, or 24.1 percent, successfully quit stopped smoking. Among those who continued to smoke, their daily cigarette consumption was reduced by half, from about 14 to 9 cigarettes on average.

Principal investigator of the program, also Professor of the faculty, Sophia Chan said that different from men, women who smoke mostly because they were emotionally stressed. Therefore, the program offered tailored smoking cessation interventions with an emphasis on women-specific health hazards, and assist women to handle stress and build stress and build confidence in quitting.

The survey also showed that participants of the program had improved self-efficacy to resist smoking, confidence in quitting smoking and quality of life. They also perceived less difficulty in quitting smoking after receiving our professional smoking cessation counseling.

According to statistics provided by the Hong Kong government, there were about 100,000 female smokers in 2008 in the city. Over half of them were aware of the available smoking cessation services, but 98.4 percent had not tried the existing services.