Smoking cessation services to which physicians can refer patients

The purpose of this article is to introduce smoking cessation services in the community to which physicians can refer their patients. There are three types of services: smoking cessation clinics at public health centers, regional smoking cessation centers, and quitlines. Smoking cessation clinics were established in 2005 at public health centers to reduce the smoking rate. Tailored counseling, nicotine replacement therapy, and drug treatment can improve the success rate of smoking cessation in clinical settings, and behavioral therapy can promote smoking cessation in the community. Quitlines have been launched and operated throughout the world as effective cessation services that guarantee confidentiality, accessibility, convenience, and cost-effectiveness. Tailored information and intervention programs for smoking prevention and smoking cessation have been offered through the telephone, multimedia messaging services, social networking services, and chatting in Korea. Referrals from other national cessation programs for maintaining cessation are also available. Since 2015, regional smoking cessation centers have administered two types of camps. The target group of intensive-care smoking cessation camps includes heavy smokers, who should receive inpatient care at the regional smoking cessation center for 5 days. The general support smoking cessation camps target smokers who wish to quit or who have unsuccessfully quit, and provide education and consulting programs over 1 to 2 days. These three types of services provide different services and programs to smokers in the community. If physicians refer to their patients to these services, they may prove to be excellent resources for increasing smoking cessation.

Attitudes toward Smoking Cessation Intervention and Services among Korean Physicians: A Questionnaire Survey / 가정의학회지

BACKGROUND: There are limited data regarding smoking cessation treatment by physicians in Korea. Thus, we investigated the attitude to smoking cessation intervention and services among Korean physicians. METHODS: This survey was conducted in 987 participating physicians who had experiences in smoking cessation services. The subjective difficulties of smoking cessation services and its causes and the presumptive reasons for failure of smoking cessation among their patients were investigated using questionnaires. RESULTS: Overall smoking rate among Korean physicians who participated in this survey was 12.6%. Most participating physicians had a difficulty in smoking cessation services and its causes were high cost of medication for smoking cessation due to non-imbursement (50.7%) and the absence of a medical fee on smoking cessation services (34.8%). The high cost of medication for smoking cessation due to non-imbursement (29.5%) also ranked high in the presumptive reasons for failure of smoking cessation among their patients. CONCLUSION: The smoking rate of Korean physicians in this survey was lower than those of the general population. Most participating physicians had a difficulty in offering smoking cessation services. And the most common cause for the difficult was non-imbursement of their services and medication.