Discussion
In this study, early treatment responders had 3.6-fold greater odds of achieving long-term abstinence compared with nonresponders. Early responders smoked fewer cigarettes per day, reported nonuse of other tobacco products, and had lower cotinine levels at baseline. These findings may inform clinical decision-making by identifying patients likely to respond successfully to a nicotine patch, a minimal, low-cost intervention, and those who may benefit from more intensive or alternative intervention. Our findings underscore the importance of follow-up within 2 to 4 weeks of the quit date. If patients have not quit within 2 to 4 weeks, transitioning to a different treatment may be beneficial. Interestingly, the parent study showed that additional adaptations to other pharmacotherapies did not rescue a significant number of smokers.This study was limited to Black individuals who were light to moderate smokers with low prevalence of other tobacco use recruited from a single Midwestern city who were motivated to quit smoking. While this assessment included numerous biopsychosocial factors that may impact treatment response, other factors may merit future research.