Real-life effectiveness of smoking cessation delivery modes: a comparison against telephone counselling and the role of individual characteristics and health conditions in quit success.

Our findings suggest that when chosen by oneself, the delivery mode of smoking cessation counselling does not appear to be important for long-term quit success. This finding is of particular relevance for those who are unable to attend in-person cessation counselling due to, for instance, reduced accessibility or mobility. We also found that women, lower educated and younger participants were more likely to drop out of the cessation programme or to not have maintained a quit attempt, signalling that disparities in smoking cessation persist when standardised counselling is given, and therefore more tailored counselling may be necessary for these groups.