ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Hospitalization presents smokers with an opportunity to initiate smoking cessation. We studied the effect of inpatient counseling and follow-up after discharge on smoking cessation and assessed predictors of successful cessation. METHODS: This study included a total of 125 patients (118 male and 7 female) who were admitted to departments of neurology, cardiology, and pulmonology. They were referred to the smoking cessation clinic, and participated between September 2011 and February 2013. A counseling service lasting about thirty minutes was provided by the third-year family medicine residents during hospitalization. The follow-up counseling services, which were either by telephone or in-person physician counseling were provided at 1 week, 4 weeks, and 3 months. Smoking habits and nicotine dependency data were gathered using questionnaires, and patient information was collected from electronic medical records. RESULTS: The average age in the study was 57.9 +/- 10.2 years and duration of smoking was 35.9 +/- 11.7 years. Daily tobacco consumption was 23.5 +/- 13.2 cigarettes. The smoking cessation rate after 3 months was 42.4%. The only differences between patients in the successful cessation and failed groups were cause of admission (P = 0.039) and total number of counseling sessions after discharge (P or =3 visits: OR, 121.873; 95% CI, 14.462 to 1,027.055). CONCLUSION: Smoking cessation counseling during hospitalization and further follow-up by telephone or outpatient counseling after discharge contributed to an increased smoking cessation rate. The smoking cessation rate also tended to increase with total counseling numbers.