Characteristics of participants who stop smoking and sustain abstinence for 1 and 5 years in the lung health study

Background. This study describes baseline and Year 1 predictors of abstinence from smoking for the 3523 intervention participants who had complete annual 5-year follow-up data in the Lung Health Study (LHS). Methods. The LHS enrolled 5887 smokers, aged 35 to 60 years, of whom 3923 were offered a cessation intervention. Of these, 22% achieved biochemically verified abstinence for 5 years. Logistic regressions were performed. The first outcome variable was abstinence from smoking at 1 year. Then for those who were quit at 1 year, the outcome variable was 5 years of sustained abstinence. Results. All participants who were not using nicotine gum after 1 year in the study were more likely to sustain cessation over 5 years than were gum users at year 1 (OR ranged from 0.31 to 0.44 for four age- and sex- specific groups). Baseline number of previous quit attempts was negatively associated with 5-year quitting success among younger and older men (OR = 0.82 and 0.83). Older participants who were less likely to associate smoking with emotional coping had higher abstinence rates at 5 years of follow-up (OR = 0.89 and 0.84). Conclusions. Different mechanisms may be responsible for achieving cessation in age/gender groups. These results have implications for planning successful interventions. (C) 2000 American Health Foundation and Academic Press.