Factors Related to Smoking Relapse among Military Personnel in Korea: Data from Smoking Cessation Clinics, 2015–2017

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Relapse is the common situation of smoking cessation attempts. There are few studies that analyzed the related factors of smoking relapse among military personnel. Thus, This study was performed to investigate factors related to smoking relapse among military personnel who participated smoking cessation clinics in Korea. METHODS: The study subjects were 19,874 military personnel who enrolled smoking cessation clinic from January in 2015 to December in 2017. Smoking cessation applied to criteria exhaled carbon monoxide and urine cotinine levels. Binominal logistic regression analysis was performed to confirm related factors of smoking relapse among military personnel who succeed to quit smoking. RESULTS: The smoking relapse rate of study subjects who succeeded in quitting smoking for 1-month was 15.3% after 3-months and 60.8% after 6-months follow-up. The factors associated with relapse smoking included implementing year, past year quit attempts, number or cigarettes smoked per day, regular exercise, blood pressure. Levels of nicotine dependence affected smoking relapse at 3-months follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Tailored approaches are necessary to reduce the rates of smoking relapse for military personnel who succeeded to quit smoking shortly but relapse back to smoking.