FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH FAILURE TO QUIT SMOKING AMONG SMOKING CESSATION CLINIC ATTENDEES IN MALAYSIA

Abstract

Tobacco smoking is a major public health concern known for its contributing risk factor of non-communicable diseases. Smoking cessation clinics are an intervention provided by the Ministry of Health Malaysia to help smokers quit smoking. We investigated the characteristics of the attendees of these clinics and the factors contributing to the failure to quit smoking among the attendees in a primary health care setting in Malaysia. This was a cross-sectional study using retrospective secondary data from 245 attendees of smoking cessation clinics in the district of Hulu Langat, Malaysia from 2016 to 2017. Purposive sampling was used, and data were analysed using SPSS 22.0. Failure to quit smoking is defined as failure to abstain from tobacco smoking after at least 6 months attendance at the smoking cessation clinic. The majority of attendees were middle-aged, male, Malay, had at least secondary school education and were married. The quit smoking failure rate was 61.2%. Four predictors of failure were identified in the final model after Forward & Backward Multiple Logistic Regression method was applied; race, number of quit attempts, visit number, and addiction class.