Inpatient Smoking Cessation Programs Lead to Improved Outcomes

Findings from an experimental study indicate that inpatient smoking cessation programs can improve quit outcomes, use of nicotine replacement therapy, and mortality rates post-discharge.

Anne M. Gadomski MD, MPH, of Bassett Research Institute, Cooperstown, NY, and colleagues employed an experimental study design to measure use of cessation methods, mortality, self-reported abstinence, and quit status six months post—hospital discharge were measured to assess the effectiveness of an inpatient smoking cessation program.

According to a report published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, participants were interviewed by phone six months following discharge. The researchers compared outcomes for patients who were seen by the inpatient smoking cessation counselor to consecutive patients who were not seen by the counselor, and used EMR and administrative data to construct baseline measures, comorbidity covariates, pharmaceutical use rates during hospitalization, readmission, and mortality outcomes.

At six months post-discharge, “the intent to treat estimate for point prevalence abstinence was 16% in the intervention group compared to 10% in the comparison group, while self-reported quit status in the intervention group was 44% vs. 30% in the comparison group,” according to the study. It was determined that the intervention group used more nicotine replacement therapy than the comparison group, both in-hospital and following discharge, and crude post—hospital discharge mortality was significantly less in the intervention group (0.02) than in the comparison group (0.04). “A multivariate survival model, controlling for baseline imbalances, showed a significantly reduced mortality in the intervention group,” said researchers.

For more:

• New Smoking-Cessation Agent Stops Nicotine Withdrawal Symptoms
• The American Journal of Managed Care: National Trends in the Provision of Smoking Cessation Aids within the Veterans Health Administration
• Archives of Internal Medicine: Smoking Cessation in Hospitalized Patients