The prevalence of adherence to smoking cessation therapy varied widely between studies (5 - 96%) and also varied between countries as shown in Table 8.
Table 8 Rates of adherence to smoking cessation therapy reported by country
Country |
No. of values reported |
Mean |
Standard deviation |
Minimum |
Maximum |
Australia |
8 |
0.57 |
0.25 |
0.19 |
0.83 |
Denmark |
23 |
0.59 |
0.14 |
0.33 |
0.86 |
Italy |
1 |
0.34 |
- |
0.34 |
0.34 |
New Zealand |
4 |
0.86 |
0.16 |
0.63 |
0.96 |
Switzerland |
2 |
0.53 |
0.10 |
0.46 |
0.60 |
United Kingdom |
11 |
0.62 |
0.17 |
0.40 |
0.91 |
United States |
31 |
0.52 |
0.23 |
0.05 |
0.96 |
This variation can be explained by the use of different interventions, adjunctive support and populations studied.
Figure 4 includes only studies that reported time-series data. It suggests that adherence to smoking cessation therapies is a logarithmic function of number of weeks. The suggested trend line shows a rapid decrease in adherence rates during the first 6 weeks and a very slow decrease after 24 weeks. (Adherence rates after week 20 are related to adherence to follow-up visits rather than therapy.)
Many studies have found a positive linear correlation between adherence and cessation rates (3,7,12,14,15,20,24,25,31 - 33,36,37,39,44). Both adherence and smoking cessation rates increased significantly when NRT was combined with antidepressant pharmacotherapy (3).
Figure 4 Adherence rates over time
NRT, nicotine replacement therapy.
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