Evaluation of a nurse-managed minimal-contact smoking cessation intervention for cardiac inpatients

This study examined the effectiveness of a nurse-managed minimal-contact smoking cessation intervention for patients hospitalized for cardiac disease. A pre-test-post-test quasi-experimental design was used. Patients who smoked prior to admission to cardiac wards of five hospitals (n = 388) received the intervention, whereas smoking patients in six other hospitals were given usual care (n = 401). The intervention was initiated at the hospital and continued after discharge. The core elements were stop-smoking advice from the cardiologist, a short bedside consultation with a nurse, administration of self-help materials and aftercare by the cardiologist. Smoking cessation was assessed after 3 months by self-report. Logistic regression analysis excluding dropouts, controlling for covariates including baseline differences showed significant intervention effects (one-tailed significance test) on point prevalence abstinence (OR = 2.11) and continuous abstinence (OR = 1.41). Intention-to-treat analysis including dropouts as smokers showed a significant effect on point prevalence abstinence (OR = 1.35). We conclude that, compared to usual care, the low-intensity smoking cessation intervention for cardiac inpatients was more effective in achieving smoking cessation. However, the small effects and the process evaluation suggest that improvements are needed.