Motivating Smokers at Outdoor Public Smoking Hotspots to Have Quit Attempt With Nicotine Replacement Therapy Sampling

Background About half of the daily smokers in Hong Kong have never tried and have no intention to quit smoking. 37.9% of daily smokers attempted to quit but failed. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is a safe and effective pharmacotherapy to reduce withdrawal symptoms during early stage of tobacco abstinence and increase quit rate. However, the prevalence of using NRT in Hong Kong is lower than most of the developed countries. The proposed project aims to test if providing free NRT sampling to smokers can increase quit attempt and hence quit successfully. Methods Nurses and university undergraduate students will be trained, and will invite smokers at outdoor public places to participate in the randomized controlled trial, which randomized eligible smokers to intervention or control group. The intervention group will be provided with 1-week free NRT sampling and medication counselling, whereas the control group will only be advised to purchase NRT on their own. The primary outcome is the proportion of any self-reported quit attempt (no smoking for at least 24 hours) in the past month at 1- and 3-month telephone follow-up. Discussions The findings will inform the feasibility and effectiveness of delivering free NRT sampling to increase quit attempt and abstinence. It will yield more information on smokers' adherence to the NRT sampling, side effect and safety issue of the usage. Moreover, it will guide a future larger trial to test the effect from the NRT sampling and translation to practice.