Quitting rate and related factors of smoking patients attending Thammasat dental student clinic

Abstract

The purpose of this research aimed to study the success of creating motivation to change smoking behavior and factors in quitting smoking among dental service recipients in the student dental clinic, Thammasat University. Materials and methods are cross-sectional descriptive studies by collecting 2 sets of questionnaires. Set 1 collecting general information of research volunteers, and Set 2 examining smoking cessation rates, using with the piCO^TM Smokerlyzer to measure carbon monoxide gas levels. Qualitative data were obtained from in-depth interviews with samples of people who were able to quit or reduce the amount of smoking, analysing with descriptive statistics and Coding analysis. Results A total of 770 periodontal patients, 33 of 48 cases of whom were smokers, received advice to quit smoking and completed dental treatment, 15 of them were willing to participate in the study. It was found that, 4 of them quit smoking, 3 of them reduced the amount of smoking per day, and 8 of them smoked the same amount from the qualitative data analysis. The important factors related to quitting smoking were 1) perception of negative effects on smoker’s own body; In particular, the ability to exercise decreased 2) personal attitude 3) support from important people 4) advice from dental students regarding oral health problems. Conclusion It was found that the smoking cessation rate of the sample was at a moderate level. All 4 related factors should be applied to create motivation to quit smoking along with long-term follow-up to help patients notice changes of both oral health and physical health of will improve.