More than 60 percent of inpatients of smoking cessation clinics have successfully quit, double the figure for outpatients, a local report showed Friday.
The ratio of inpatients who successfully quit smoking for four weeks was 73.9 percent, or 216 patients out of 292 patients who joined the anti-smoking program at Dankook University Hospital, the latest findings by the Korean Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco said.
The people were admitted to the program between March and November of last year.
The comparable figure for those who remained smoke-free for three months was 69.2 percent, or 153 out of the 221 inpatients, while the numbers for people who quit smoking for six months was 66.7 percent, or 60 out of 90 patients.
The figures compare favorably to less than 30 percent of outpatients who successfully quit smoking after attending the smoking cessation program.
The KSRNT called on the government to provide financial assistance to hospitals to help them establish such clinics, noting the rise in cigarette tax revenue in recent years.
"It is very hard for even inpatients to stop smoking as nicotine is highly addictive," Chung Yoo-seok at the research society said, stressing the need for the government to funnel part of the increased tobacco tax revenue to anti-smoking clinics.
The tobacco tax revenue rose to 12.3 trillion won ($10.7 billion) in 2016 from 6.9 trillion won in 2014 and 10.5 trillion won in 2015, according to statistics by the Korea Taxpayers' Association.
The government increased taxes on cigarettes by 2,000 won ($1.70) per pack from Jan. 1, 2015, raising the price to 4,500 won per pack, citing the need to discourage smoking. (Yonhap)
