Smoking Cessation Programme in Workplaces in Hong Kong (Phase III)

Assessing the Corporate Environment in Promoting Tobacco Control and Evaluation of a Smoking Cessation Programme in Workplaces in Hong Kong

Smoking causes cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancers and diabetes, and it has been a leading risk factor for death globally. Despite the availability of smoking cessation services locally, most smokers do not use such services. Workplace is one of the most convenient platforms to provide smoking cessation services and over 55% of smokers are employed according to the local population-based survey. However, the effectiveness of a smoking cessation programme conducted in workplace is yet to be examined in Hong Kong, and the attitudes and practices of corporations in promoting smoking cessation are not clear. Thus, this study aims to examine the employers'/managerial staff's knowledge, attitudes and practices in promoting smoking cessation in workplace and evaluate the smoking behaviours of participants before and after attending a smoking cessation intervention.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Smoking Cessation
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Health talk plus intensive social media intervention; Behavioral: Health talk plus less intensive social media intervention

Detailed Description

This study will separate into two phases. Phase I is a large scale cross-sectional survey to corporations in Hong Kong to examine the employers' knowledge, attitudes and practices in promoting smoking cessation in the workplace. Phase II is a randomized controlled trial study to evaluate the effectiveness of a smoking cessation intervention to assess the subjects' smoking behaviors, knowledge on smoking and satisfaction of the smoking cessation services. The investigators are interested to know if the intervention package including health education,social media and telephone follow-up would trigger higher quit rate or other changes in smoking behaviors. The investigators will also monitor the smoking status of the subjects regularly through telephone follow-ups, understand the company's practices about smoke-free policy as well as evaluate the outcomes of the intervention.

The primary outcome of the study is to measure participated smokers' self-reported 7-day point prevalence quit rate at 26 weeks follow-ups. The secondary outcomes include participated smokers' (i) self-reported reduction rate at 52 weeks follow-ups; (ii) self-reported quit attempt at 26 and 52 weeks follow-ups; (iii) self-reported reduction rate at 26 and 52 weeks follow-ups; (iv) Engagement in social media intervention.

Data of the above outcomes will be collected through telephone interviews (follow-ups) by the investigators. Descriptive statistics will be used to measure the (1) basic info of the participants, including the total number of employees and smoking employees; (2) knowledge on smoking of employers/managerial staff; (3) attitudes on smoking cessation of employers/managerial staff; (4) practices of the corporations with respect to smoking cessation. Logistic regression, linear regression and spearman correlation coefficient will be used to examine the relationships between corporates' policy in smoking cessation and the knowledge and attitudes of employers/ managerial staff. Chi square and t-test will also be used to compare the quit rates between groups and logistic regression will be used to predict quitting. Data will be entered and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 679
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Hong Kong residents aged 18 or above
• Cantonese speaker
• Smoke at least one cigarette per day in the past 30 days
• Stay in Hong Kong during the intervention and follow-up periods (12 months)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Smokers who are psychologically or physically unable to communicate
• Currently following other smoking cessation programme(s)
• Smokers with diagnosed psychiatric illnesses

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Health talk plus intensive social media intervention; Subjects in this group will receive: General health talk;; Phone follow-up/counselling service (15 - 30 minutes);; Social media (intensive reminders);; Regular personalized what's app interaction ( up to 2 months duration)	Behavioral: Health talk plus intensive social media intervention; Subjects in this group will receive treatments including a general health education talk about smoking cessation. Subjects will also get involved in the personalized what's app interaction (up to 2 months duration) to receive social support to quit smoking. The intervention outcomes and subjects' smoking status will be followed up regularly via telephone interviews (15 - 30 minutes).
Placebo Comparator: Health talk plus less intensive social media intervention; Subjects in this group will receive: General health talk;; Phone follow-up/counselling service (15 - 30 mintues);; Social media ( less intensive reminders)	Behavioral: Health talk plus less intensive social media intervention; Subjects in this group will receive treatments including a general health education talk about smoking cessation but without the information of active referral to other smoking cessation services. Subjects will receive less intensive reminders via social media. The intervention outcomes and subjects' smoking status will be followed up regularly via telephone interviews (15 - 30 minutes).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-reported 7-day point prevalence quit rate	Smokers who did not smoke even a puff in the 7 days preceding the follow-up	26 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Self-reported 7-day point prevalence quit rate	Smokers who did not smoke even a puff in the 7 days preceding the follow-up	52 weeks
Self-reported reduction rate	Smokers' who reduced tobacco use (in term of daily cigarette consumption) in the follow-up when comparing with the baseline	26 and 52 weeks
Self-reported quit attempt rate	Smokers' who refrained from smoking for 24 hours in the 7 days preceding the follow-up	26 and 52 weeks
Engagement in social media intervention	Self-reported engagement in social media intervention in the two groups	26 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Hong Kong
• Collaborators: Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society, Kowloon
• Investigators: Study Director: Tai Hing Lam, MD, The University of Hong Kong

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 11, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 30, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 24, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 3, 2017
• First Posted (Actual): May 5, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 21, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 20, 2021
• Last Verified: September 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: LST SCPW P3

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No