EFFECT OF DISCUSSING FRAMINGHAM RISK SCORE ON SMOKE CESSATION: PILOT RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIAL

Introduction: Smoking has an obvious effect on cardiovascular diseases. We tried to find an effective way for smoking cessation strategy.Our aim was to determine the probability of smoking-cessationafter discussing cardiovascular risk with and without smoking during family medicine clinic visits using the Framingham score. Methods: Randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted at family medicine outpatient clinics in two hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Sixty-four participants were recruited in to the study and were randomized into two arms: Framingham score (experimental) and traditional (control) groups.Allocation was concealed. There were three follow up sessions, once every two weeks. Structured interviews were used to fill validated questionnaire in each follow up. Result: We found (4/25; 16%) participants quit smoking in the intervention group, while only (2/30; 16%) participants in control group quit smoking after six-week follow up (P-value= 0.251). However, (13/25; 52%) (number of cigarettes) on the intervention group and (19/30; 63%) patients on the control group reduced the number of consumed cigarettes after six-week follow up. Conclusione: We thought the Framingham score advice will be more beneficial to smokers, but the result showed no significant difference.