Evaluation of nicotine patch adherence measurement using self-report and saliva cotinine among abstainers in a smoking cessation trial

What Was Tested

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

This is the first study to examine the validity of self-reported nicotine patch adherence relative to saliva cotinine.

Why It Was Studied

Adherence to nicotine patches relates to cessation.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 198 participants were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

The researchers used data from 198 clinical trial participants who received 11 weeks of nicotine patches, self-reported patch use, had saliva cotinine 1-week after the start of treatment assessed, and were not smoking when saliva was collected (CO < 6).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Self-reported patch adherence was defined as: 3-day (before saliva collection), 7-day (before saliva collection), 3-week use (7 days before, and 14 days after, saliva collection), and 11-week use (7 days before, and 10 weeks after, saliva collection).

Analyses, including receiver operating characteristic curves, considered differences in nicotine metabolism.

Sensitivity, specificity and positive (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) assessed optimal cotinine cut-point for adherence.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cotinine, Medication Adherence, Nicotine, ROC Curve, Saliva, Self Report and Smoking Cessation.

Author keywords: Nicotine metabolism, Nicotine patch, Validity and saliva cotinine.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in 198 participants.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2020 (Drug and alcohol dependence), a journal based in Ireland.

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