RAUORA Trial: Cytisine vs varenicline for smoking cessation in New Zealand
RAUORA Trial is a study evaluating whether cytisine, a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist (like varenicline) found in some plants is effective, safe and cost-effective compared with varenicline for smoking cessation in Māori and the whānau (extended family) of Māori.
Dr Subhash Pokhrel from Health Economics Theme is leading the economics component of the RAUORA trial. New Zealand (NZ) has a smoke‐free 2025 goal (i.e. < 5% of adults smoking by 2025). To achieve this goal, net smoking cessation rates need to increase substantially, particularly for Māori who, in 2016, comprised 14% of the NZ population, who have a high prevalence of daily smoking (33%) compared with the general population (14%). Consequently, Māori has high rates of smoking‐related disease, contributing to the 7–8‐year life‐expectancy gap between Māori and non‐Māori in NZ. Offering cytisine may be a potentially cost-effective strategy in achieving this goal.
This is a pragmatic, community-based, open-label randomized non-inferiority trial based in the Lakes District Health Board region, NZ.
Publications
Cytisine versus varenicline for smoking cessation for Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) and their extended family: protocol for a randomized non‐inferiority trial
Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project
Related Research Group(s)
Health Economics (HERG) - Our strategic focus is on economic evaluation and systematic reviews of a broad range of clinical and health service technologies by providing high-quality, applied, policy-relevant research, as well as developing and refining methods to increase the rigour and relevance of such studies.
Partnering with confidence
Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.
Project last modified 20/10/2021