Smoking Cessation Intervention in a Cardiovascular Hospital Based Clinical Setting

Abstract EN

Introduction.

Smoking is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally and it is a significant modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and other chronic diseases.

Efforts to encourage and support smokers to quit are critical to prevent premature smoking-associated morbidity and mortality.

Hospital settings are seldom equipped to help patients to quit smoking thus missing out a valuable opportunity to support patients at risk of smoking complications.

We report the impact of a smoking cessation clinic we have established in a tertiary care hospital setting to serve patients with CVD.

Methods.

Patients received behavioural and pharmacological treatments and were followed up for a minimum of 6 months (mean 541 days, SD 197 days).

The main study outcome is ≥50% reduction in number of cigarettes smoked at followup.

Results.

One hundred and eighty-six patients completed ≥6 months followup.

More than half of the patients (52.7%) achieved ≥50% smoking reduction at follow up.

Establishment of a plan to quit smoking and use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) were significantly associated with smoking reduction at followup.

Conclusions.

A hospital-based smoking cessation clinic is a beneficial intervention to bring about smoking reduction in approximately half of the patients.