Feasibility and effectiveness of a pilot outreach smoking cessation programme at smoking hotspots in Hong Kong

Abstract

Since the enforcement of the smokefree legislation in 2007, more smokers have been gathering near some public rubbish bins at outdoor bus stops, outside office buildings and shopping malls to smoke. These “hotspots” provided an opportunity of publicizing and providing smoking cessation services to a large number of smokers and motivate them to quit. We aimed to promote smoking cessation at smoking hotspots and evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a pilot outreach approach. Out of the 26 smoking hotspots near shopping malls and commercial buildings, 10 hotspots with the great number of smokers were selected for the intervention from February to August 2009. Trained smoking cessation counsellors disseminated 2-page promotional leaflets and proactively delivered brief smoking cessation counselling (less than 5 minutes for each smoker) to smokers for 4 hours at each hotspot. We evaluated the programme by counting of smokers non-smokers 1 week before and 1 week after the intervention. We observed the smokers’ responses and behaviours when they were approached by the counsellors. In the observed 1,237 smokers at the 10 hotspots, the counsellors approached 751 (60.7%) smokers. 419 (55.8%) read or kept the promotional leaflets. 413 (55.0%) were willing to receive the brief on-site counselling. The intervention reduced the number of smokers at the hotspots by 7.8% (pre: 1,251, post: 1,154)) with 2.1% increase in non-smokers (pre: 5,004, post: 5,108). The proportion of smokers at hotspots reduced by 1.6% (95%CI 0.04%-3.1%, p=0.053) comparing 1 week before and after the intervention, whereas there was no significant difference in non-smokers (risk difference=1.6%, 95%CI -1.6%-4.7%, p=0.40). The outreach programme had a slightly positive impact to reduce the proportion of smokers at hotspots. The smoking hotpots are good locations for feasible and effective delivery of smoking cessation messages. Improvement in the approaching skills and incentives are needed.