Non-pharmacological interventions for tobacco cessation: A systematic review of existing practice and their effectiveness

Abstract

Smoking tobacco is associated with lung cancer and other lifethreatening diseases which requires serious action to curb it. Tobacco cessation interventions are available as pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods or a combination of both. The present review examines the effectiveness of the existing nonpharmacological tobacco cessation interventions and synthesizes the result for the future development of drug-free treatment in the community for tobacco cessation. The literature search was conducted in August 2020, using two electronic databases (PubMed and JSTOR), with search terms: ['tobacco cessation' OR 'smoking cessation'] AND ['intervention'] which included studies published during 2010 and 2020 (till 31st July 2020). All studies were limited to English language, human participants and excluded patients with comorbidities. A total of 2,114 publications were retrieved out of which 11 articles were reviewed. On the basis of intervention used in reviewed studies, we categorized them into seven categories: i) incentive-based intervention; ii) exercise based; iii) telephone-based proactive counselling; iv) mobile phone SMS (Short Message Service) based; v) smartphone app (application) based; vi) web-based intervention, vii) self-help material. Incentives were provided in most of the studies to maintain the retention rate and motivate the participants for completing follow-up. Non-pharmacological interventions for tobacco cessation include a combination of various elements. Our findings suggest that behavioural counselling is one of the most important elements of any non-pharmacological intervention. In addition to behaviour counselling, yoga and exercises along with self-help material, video and phone counselling may have higher efficacy. Thus, practicing non-pharmacological interventions may also increase the cessation rate and reduce the tobacco use burden.