Background: Wellness program is a service provided by Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) to deliver an exercise program dedicated to patients with unhealthy lifestyle. Failing to cancel health care appointments in advance "no show" results in a vacant appointment slot that cannot be offered to other patients, which in turn will have an adverse impact on management plan and expected health outcome measures. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to implement a patient-centred care (PCC) program as an interventional approach to engage patients in changing behaviour and to encourage selfawareness to improve health status. Another aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an appointment reminder system (either short message service (SMS) or telephone call) on completion rate of the 12-week Wellness program. Methods: Amongst 112 patients, 50 participants (age: 49.9 ± 12.56 years; height: 1.61 ± 0.08 m; body mass: 75.06 ± 15 kg; body mass index (BMI): 28.66 ± 3.51 kg/m 2 ) completed two surveys as part of the PCC program. The first survey was regarding the appointment reminder's method preference. Accordingly, the demanded reminder system has been implemented as per patients' preferences and then the rate of completion of the 12-weeks-wellness-program has been compared to the months preceding the intervention to demonstrate the effectiveness of this new reminder system. Towards the end of the study, a second survey on patients' satisfaction level with regard the new reminder system has been completed. Results: The PCC program showed that majority of the patients were in favour of an appointment reminder system through SMS text message and telephone calls. Implementing this tool based on patient preference resulted in a high improvement of the completion rate of the Wellness program. Conclusions: This study provides insight on the efficacy of implementing a PCC program in Wellness Centre as well as the effectiveness of an appointment reminder system in improving the completion rate of Wellness program in a primary health care facility. Completing the Wellness program may lead to improved lifestyle behaviour and health outcomes by complying with international physical activity recommendations from the American College of Exercise Medicine (ACEM) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

ObjectiveTo estimate the rate and predictors of smoking cessation in smokers attending smoking cessation clinics in primary care settings in Qatar.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 759 smokers who had attended any of the 10 smoking cessation clinics in primary health care centers from January 2019 to June 2020. The sociodemographic, clinical, and smoking-related variables were assessed. Tailored behavioral and pharmacotherapy were delivered, and patients were interviewed at 6 months to estimate the 30-day point prevalence abstinence. To identify independent factors associated with smoking cessation, a multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed.ResultsThe mean age of participants was 40.6 (±11.3), majority being married, Arab and employed, and having a tertiary education. Almost half of the smokers (48.7%) received varenicline alone, 42.6% received NRT, and 31.8% received a combination of both. The selection of drug therapy was based on preferences, experiences, and history of previously encountered adverse effects. The overall 30-day quit rate at 6 months follow-up was 32.4%. About three-quarters (72.5%) of participants had at least one quit attempt and 12.5% had 3 or more attempts. Later age at smoking initiation, lower cigarette consumption at baseline, lower CO concentration at baseline, use of smoking cessation pharmacotherapy, having made fewer quit attempts and non-exposure to secondhand smoke among friends were identified as significant predictors of successful quitting at 6 months.ConclusionThe 30-day quit rate at 6 months follow-up (32.4%) is comparable to the worldwide figure. However, further efforts should be made to plan cost-effective tobacco dependence treatment taking into account predictors and at-risk groups.

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