Cigarette smoking is the number one preventable cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, particularly in low and middle-income countries. In Vietnam, according to the Joint Annual Health Review 2014, there are currently over 50% of men and 2% of women smoke combustible cigarette products[1]. Therefore, reducing the burden of smoking-related diseases by promoting cessation among current tobacco users has been one of the country’s priorities per the Ministry of Health of Vietnam’s policies. In September 2015, the Vietnam Respiratory Society established a Quitline Center in Bach Mai hospital in Hanoi in order to promote smoking cessation.
Aiming to promote access to the Quitline Center as well as to increase access to counseling services and nicotine replacement therapy, the Institute of Population, Health and Development (PHAD) implements the research project entitled “m-Health Messaging to Motivate Quitline Use and Quitting (M2Q2)”. Funded by the Fogarty International Center – National Institutes of Health (NIH), the project is a collaborative work between PHAD and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and will be carried out in five (05) years from 2017 to 2022. Currently, the project is in preparation phase and is waiting for the project implementation approval from the Vietnamese government.
More information about the project can be found at the Project Information page on the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT) portal via the following link: https://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=9371591.
Main activities of project in 2019
Activity 1: Recruitment participants to project
By the end of November 2019, 437 participants have been recruited to the project. In addition, participants have monitored and evaluated smoking status after 6 months.
Activity 2: Monthly meeting with the Smoking Cessation Counseling Center of Bach Mai Hospital (Quitline).
The meeting is held between PHAD project team and Quiline with aim to update and discuss activities related to smoking counselling for participants in the project.
Activity 3: UMASS expert’s field trip in Vietnam
From 28th March to 3rd April 2019, experts from the University of Massachusetts Medical University (UMASS) had a field trip in Vietnam to monitor project activities and discuss with PHAD about some issues related to the project. Besides, a workshop on training tobacco cessation counselling skills for doctors and Quitline’s ccounselors of Respiratory Center in Bach Mai Hospital was held in April 1st 2019.
Activity 4: Re-fresher training workshop for strengthening smoking cessation counselling skills for community health professionals
In August 6th 2019, a training workshop on tobacco cessation counseling skill for community health workers was held in Yen My district health center belonging to Hung Yen province. Participants in workshop are doctors in Bach Mai Hospital, Hung Yen Department of Health’s representative, staffs in 4 District Health Centers (Yen My, Van Lam, My Hao, Khoai Chau) and staffs in 4 Community Health Stations (Tan Viet, Viet Hung, Bach Sam, Binh Minh). The aims of workshop are to train direct counselling skill and discuss some situations in implementation.
Activity 5: Workshop on sharing experiences on tobacco use cessation in Vietnam
In October 13th 2019, PHAD project team participated in the workshop on sharing experiences on smoking cessation in Vietnam held by the Institute of Social and Medical Studies (ISMS) and Vietnam’s Tobacco Control Fund. At the workshop, Dr. Nguyen Kieu Cuong (Co-site PI) gave an introductory presentation about the M2Q2 project.
[1] Ministry of Health. Joint Annual Health Review 2014 – Strengthening prevention and control non-communicable disease.