Effect of Mailing Nicotine Patches on Tobacco Cessation Among Adult Smokers: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

To evaluate the effect of mailing nicotine patches to smokers without behavioral support on quit success rates.

Why It Was Studied

Epidemiologic data, however, indicate that people using NRT are no more likely to successfully quit smoking than those who do not use NRT.

Who Took Part

The study group was 2093 individuals.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

A single-blinded, 2-group randomized clinical trial of adult smokers recruited across Canada by random-digit dialing of home and cell telephone numbers from June 4, 2012, through June 26, 2014.

Those who were interested and deemed eligible to participate (no contraindications to NRT) were randomized to the experimental group to be mailed a 5-week supply of nicotine patches or to a control group.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and single-blind study.

The individuals were allocated by chance, so the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

In this single-blind Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study one party knew the assignments and the other did not.

Follow-up was completed on January 5, 2015, and data were analyzed from May 24, 2015, through July 6, 2015.

Telephone follow-ups were conducted at 8 weeks and 6 months.

Participants randomized to the control group were not offered the nicotine patches or any other intervention.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Postal Service, Smoking, Tobacco Use Cessation and Tobacco Use Cessation Devices.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and single-blind study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in 2093 individuals.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Its findings take up roughly 8 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2016 (JAMA internal medicine), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.