Smoking cessation at the workplace: one year success of short seminars

Objectives: In search of less time-consuming methods of smoking cessation Allen Carr’ seminars performed at workplaces in Austria were evaluated. Methods: 308 (86%) of all 357 smokers attending a seminar in summer 2002 gave consent to participate in a repeated health survey, including the SF-36 questionnaire. 268 (87%) gave computer aided telephone interviews after 3 months and 223 (72%) after one year. Analysis by logistic regression was done separately for males and females. Results: The one year quit rate was 40 % (worst case assumption) – 55 % (best estimate). In 96 % of quitters an intensive counselling for 6 hours without pharmaceutical aid thereafter was sufficient to maintain abstinence for 12 months. A long smoking history or many earlier unsuccessful attempts to quit did not predict failure. The risk of relapse was found higher in young men with high number of pack-years and in women with good physical fitness but high Fagerstroem score and financial reasons for the intention to quit smoking. While an average weight gain of 3kg in males was not associated with failure to quit smoking, we found the highest weight gain (4kg) in females in the group abstinent at 3 months but smoking again at 12 months. In quitters general health scored bySF-36 improved. Conclusions: Group counselling at the workplace was found to be an efficient method of smoking cessation, capable to increase subjective life quality and health and to smooth the way to smoke-free enterprises