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Various interventions for smoking cessation including health professionals¡¯ advice, counseling and drug therapy are effective to help smokers to quit smoking.
The remark was made by Head of Tobacco Control Office (TCO) of the Department of Health (DH), Dr Christine Wong during a press briefing today (December 19).
Dr Wong said over the past five years, over 3000 smokers had attended the department¡¯s smoking cessation clinics.
Dr Wong said that for those quitters who attended DH¡¯s smoking cessation clinics, the success rates at the 26-week and the 52-week after the smoking cessation programme were around 40 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. The results were comparable to overseas experiences.
She said that smokers who wanted to quit smoking could call the TCO hotline 1833 183 during office hours to talk direct to registered nurses to seek professional advice on smoking cessation. They can also obtain information on smoking cessation by fax outside office hours.
The hotline also provides tri-lingual pre-recorded messages on smoking cessation and arranges referral for smoking cessation clinics, if necessary.
Dr Wong said public response to the smoking cessation hotline service has been encouraging. Over 12 000 calls were handled by the TCO between 2001 and 2005. The number of calls received so far this year and last year were 3 500 and 4 500 respectively.
As the demand for smoking cessation service is expected to increase in the coming year, Dr Wong said additional manpower was deployed to man the hotline.
Noting that determination, perseverance, enabling environment and effective methods of smoking cessation were key elements for quitting smoking, Dr Wong said the support of family members and friends of smokers were also important.
She reiterated that it was a well-known fact that smoking was one of the major preventable leading causes of deaths in Hong Kong.
¡°It is of vital importance to prevent people from smoking and help smokers to quit the deadly habit,¡± she added.
More information on smoking cessation is available at TCO¡¯s website (http://www.tco.gov.hk).
Dr Wong said that, apart from DH, the Hospital Authority and private sectors also provided smoking cessation services to the public. Members of the public could approach these services (see Appendix) or other health professionals to seek assistance in smoking cessation.
Two ex-smokers shared their experiences of smoking cessation during the press briefing. Both of them had smoked for more than 30 years and echoed that determination and support from family were the keys to quit smoking.
Ends/Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Issued at HKT 21:09
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