Last Year, Redefining 'Smoking Cessation' as 'Healthy Vascular Care' Concept; Winning Seoul City's Top Award... Activating Visiting Smoking Cessation Clinics Considering the Area with the Most Businesses in Seoul, Identifying Single-Person Households
Gangnam-gu (District Mayor Jo Seong-myeong) is promoting the ‘Goodbye~ Nicotine! Project’ to support residents who have resolved to quit smoking in the new year.
Last year, the district approached smoking cessation support not as a negative stigma against smokers but from the perspective of healthy vascular management, implementing various smoking cessation health management support projects linked with health checkups at public health centers. As a result, 20,813 people received smoking cessation education and counseling, 1,632 registered at the public health center’s smoking cessation clinic, and 32.9% succeeded in quitting smoking last year.
Accordingly, Gangnam-gu received external recognition by winning the grand prize in the 2023 ‘Making Seoul a Smoke-Free City’ project and being selected as an excellent institution for smoking cessation treatment by the National Health Insurance Service for four consecutive times.
Additionally, analysis of the 2023 Community Health Survey indicators showed that the current smoking rate was 15.2%, the third lowest among the 25 autonomous districts.
This year, based on these achievements and capabilities, the district will implement various smoking cessation support projects, including the ‘Goodbye Nicotine Project’ centered on the public health center’s smoking cessation clinic. In particular, reflecting the regional characteristic of many large-scale businesses, the district plans to activate mobile smoking cessation clinics visiting each workplace, focusing on discovering smokers in single-person households.
The Gangnam-gu smoking cessation clinic provides a one-stop service from counseling to treatment. It encourages the start of quitting smoking through basic health consultations and nicotine dependence tests, and medical staff assist with smoking cessation management by combining drug treatment for heavy smokers and those who have failed to quit. To serve residents in areas with limited access to public health centers, the Suseo Health Branch operates a smoking cessation clinic every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month (2?4 p.m.). Those who register at the clinic and maintain smoking cessation for six months receive a commemorative gift for their success.
Reflecting the regional characteristic of having the largest number of businesses (108,588) and employees (802,908) in Seoul, the district plans to strengthen the ‘Visiting Smoking Cessation Clinic.’ Smoking cessation counselors visit workplaces every two weeks to provide basic health surveys and four sessions of one-on-one customized smoking cessation counseling, supporting individuals with appropriate smoking cessation aids such as nicotine patches, gum, candies, and behavioral therapy medications.
Businesses wishing to apply can recruit five or more employees who want to quit smoking and apply through the public health center’s smoking cessation clinic. Last year, a total of 22 workplaces, including companies, were visited, educating and counseling 620 people, with 334 registering at the clinic.
Furthermore, with the recent increase in single-person households, which account for 40.2% of Gangnam-gu’s population, the district plans to focus on directly identifying smokers. Based on the promotional success of the smoking cessation clinic held last year in collaboration with the Gangnam-gu Single-Person Household Community Center (Nonhyeon-ro 86-gil 29), tailored health consultations will be proactively provided to single-person households again this year.
In addition, the district plans to provide thorough counseling linked to health information such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia by identifying ‘smoking cessation needed’ individuals through national health screening results.
Jo Seong-myeong, Mayor of Gangnam-gu, stated, “If you have resolved to quit smoking this year, I hope you succeed by receiving continuous management through the public health center. Based on our capabilities recognized as Seoul’s best smoke-free city, we will continue to provide multifaceted support, including visiting smoking cessation counseling for office workers and single-person households.”
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