The availability of specialised quit support provided by the national stop-smoking program in Romania
Published Online: Mar 31, 2020
Page range: 169 - 173
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pneum-2019-0032
Keywords
© 2019 Valentin Nădășan et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
Introduction
Quit-smoking support is provided to Romanian smokers since 2007 through a network of stop-smoking centres. The study aimed to collect up-to-date information about the availability of psychological counselling and medication for smoking cessation at the existing specialised centres.
Materials and methods
All the stop-smoking centres listed on the program’s official website were contacted by phone by a trained evaluator introducing himself as a smoker in need of professional support.
Results
Of the 41 counties listed on the website, only 70.7% provided a contact phone number for the stop-smoking centre. While 56.1% of the centres answered the first or second call, the actual availability of quit support was confirmed by only 41.5% of the centres. The time till the first appointment varied between 1 day and 1 month. Psychological support and free medication for treating nicotine addiction were available in 36.6% and 14.6% of the centres, respectively.
Conclusion
The availability of stop-smoking support at the time of the assessment was significantly limited.