Evaluation of smoking cessation drug use and outcomes in the Netherlands

Figures & data

Table 1.  Characteristics of study patients, stratified by reported smoking cessation drug at last quit attempt.

		Smoking cessation drug at last quit attempt*
	All	Varenicline	Bupropion	NRT	Combination of drugs
	n = 612	n = 173	n = 216	n = 31	n = 176
	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
Gender
Male	286 (47)	76 (44)	107 (50)	11 (35)	82 (47)
Female	326 (53)	97 (56)	109 (50)	20 (65)	94 (53)
Age (years, mean ± SD)	48 ± 11	47 ± 11	48 ± 12	52 ± 11	49 ± 11
Reported comorbidities
Cardiovascular diseases	83 (14)	20 (12)	29 (13)	5 (16)	28 (16)
Asthma	53 (9)	22 (13)	8 (4)	6 (19)	17 (10)
COPD	110 (18)	33 (19)	26 (12)	4 (13)	43 (24)
Diabetes mellitus	39 (6)	9 (5)	12 (6)	3 (10)	12 (7)
Psychiatric disorders	84 (14)	25 (15)	20 (9)	7 (23)	30 (17)
Pack-years smoked (median (IQR))	30 (16–41)	30 (16–41)	27 (14–38)	29 (25–44)	30 (19–45)
Nicotine dependence level
Very slightly dependent	75 (12)	17 (10)	29 (13)	5 (16)	23 (13)
Slightly dependent	59 (10)	12 (7)	26 (12)	3 (10)	15 (9)
Moderately dependent	92 (15)	23 (13)	34 (16)	6 (19)	27 (15)
Dependent	116 (19)	29 (17)	45 (21)	6 (19)	32 (18)
Highly dependent	270 (44)	92 (53)	82 (38)	11 (36)	79 (45)
Number of quit attempts
1	68 (11)	26 (15)	27 (13)	2 (7)	12 (7)
2–3	276 (45)	79 (46)	111 (51)	17 (55)	61 (35)
4–5	151 (25)	35 (20)	52 (24)	5 (16)	55 (31)
6–7	34 (6)	15 (9)	5 (2)	1 (3)	13 (7)
More than 7	83 (14)	18 (10)	21 (10)	6 (19)	35 (20)

*Only mono-pharmacotherapy groups larger than ten respondents are listed separately. All drug combinations are included in one group. Frequently used combinations were: zyban + NRT (n = 73), champix + NRT (n = 53), champix + zyban (n = 21). No information was available on timing of multiple therapies, so they could have been used sequentially.

SD, standard deviation; IQR, interquartile range (i.e., range of the middle 50% of the data).

Table 2.  Reason quitting smoking, stratified by reported smoking cessation drug at last quit attempt.

Reason for quitting smoking*		Smoking cessation drug at last quit attempt
	All	Varenicline	Bupropion	NRT	Combination of drugs
	n = 612	n = 173	n = 216	n = 31	n = 176
	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
Medical reason	561 (92)	156 (90)	195 (90)	28 (90)	166 (94)
Advice from healthcare professional	197 (32)	61 (35)	52 (24)	12 (39)	64 (36)
Financial reason	252 (41)	63 (36)	92 (43)	9 (29)	79 (45)
Aesthetic reason	183 (30)	50 (29)	66 (31)	8 (26)	52 (30)
Other reason	309 (50)	81 (47)	115 (53)	14 (45)	91 (52)

*Percentages count up to more than 100% because of multiple answers to this question.

Table 3.  Effectiveness of smoking cessation drugs and duration of use stratified by outcome of last quit attempt.

Smoking cessation drug at last quit attempt†		Outcome last quit attempt*						p-value for difference duration use
		Remained abstinent			Relapsed
	N	N (%)	n‡	Duration of use in days§ (mean ± SD)	N (%)	n‡	Duration of use in days§ (mean ± SD)
Varenicline	173	88 (51%)	84	53 ± 30	85 (49%)	82	40 ± 29	<0.01
Bupropion	216	115 (53%)	114	42 ± 26	101 (47%)	99	35 ± 27	<0.05
NRT	31	13 (42%)	11	44 ± 25	18 (58%)	18	19 ± 16	<0.01
Varenicline + NRT	53	21 (40%)	20	46 ± 33	32 (60%)	31	42 ± 33	0.65
Bupropion + NRT	73	23 (32%)	23	42 ± 31	50 (68%)	50	40 ± 27	0.72
Varenicline + bupropion	21	4 (19%)	3	63 ± 37	17 (81%)	15	42 ± 32	0.33

*Self-report of smoking status at the time of questionnaire, i.e. at a median 318 days after the last quit attempt.

†Only drugs and drug combinations used by more than ten respondents are listed.

‡Number of respondents who had stopped treatment yet at the time of questionnaire. Duration of use was calculated over this number of respondents.

§In case of drug combinations no information was available on timing of therapies, so drugs could have been used (partly) simultaneously or sequentially. Duration of use was conservatively based on the drug with the longest duration of use (i.e., assuming simultaneous use).

SD, standard deviation.