A clinical report says that hospital inpatients are more determined to quit smoking than their outpatient counterparts.
The report, made public yesterday morning by Chen Ching-ying (陳晶瑩), a family medicine doctor at the National Taiwan University Hospital (台大醫院), said that 30 percent of inpatients who had smoked continue to lead a clean life after being released from the hospital.
By comparison, 18 percent of the hospital's outpatients who are frequent smokers successfully quit smoking after seeking medical help.
"We tell the patients what may happen to them if they continue to smoke. Most of them listen to what we say because they don't want their health to deteriorate," Chen said.
The report was a three-year review, from March 1998 to June this year, of 254 individuals who sought medical help at the hospital's family medicine department to quit smoking.
It combines a first-year review of the 54 inpatients who checked into the same department to tackle the problem.
The hospital is one of Taipei City's 11 hospitals and clinics offering medical services to help patients quit smoking. There are 30 others in Taiwan offering the same service.
According to the report, although 25 percent of the 254 outpatients successfully quit smoking one month after receiving the treatment, the figure dropped to about 18 percent one year later.
While more than 27 percent of the 54 inpatients successfully quit smoking one month after receiving the treatment, relapses climbed up to 33 percent.
To quit smoking successfully, Chen said, patients need to find out, with the help of their doctors, what motivates them to smoke and how they become addicted.
"It takes time to break old habits. In addition to medical treatment, patients need to stay away from the things or environment that may trigger a relapse," she said.
A one-month treatment of nicotine patches or gums may cost between NT$2,000 and NT$4,000 a month, depending on the severity of the situation.
Chen said that prevention is better than cures.
"Potential smokers need to be aware of the danger of smoking. Despite the Tobacco Hazards Act (菸害防制法), Taiwan's smoking population still keeps growing, especially among women and teenagers," Chen said.
The tobacco law, which went into effect in 1997, banned the sale of cigarettes to teenagers under the age of 18 and made mandatory the printing of a health warning on the outside of cigarette packs.
Starting last year, consumers have to pay NT$5 extra as duty on each pack of cigarettes.
Although the total population of Taiwan's adult smokers shows a steady decrease over the past three years, that of women and teenage smokers has been growing, according to the John Tung Foundation (董氏基金會)
Last year about 40 percent of Taiwan's male population smoked, 7 percent of women and about 13 percent of teenagers.
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