A smoking-cessation program consisting of extensive counseling, pharmacotherapy, and office spirometry: Results of a pilot project in a veterans administration medical center

Study Objective. To describe the 1-year outcomes of a Veterans Administration smoking-cessation program that demonstrates a standard of care comprising extensive counseling, pharmacotherapy, and office spirometry Design. Prospective one-group pretest-posttest, with an intervention of state-of-the-art practice in smoking cessation. Setting. Outpatient clinic in a Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC). Patients. Two hundred fifty-two veterans receiving health care at the VAMC. Measurements and Main Results. The primary outcome measured was the 1-year cessation rate of smokers. Demographic and clinical covariates also were collected. Of the 252 patients who enrolled in the program, 120 never quit smoking for even 1 day. Of the remaining 132 patients, 32 (24%) achieved long-term (1 yr) cessation. The number of visits to the clinic and the number of methods used during the attempt to quit were the only variables significantly associated with long-term smoking cessation (p<0.0001 for each). Conclusion. The availability of a standard-of-practice clinic for smoking cessation within a primary care clinic can help patients who have a desire to quit. A combination of intensive counseling, pharmacotherapy, and office spirometry helped patients in a Veterans Administration population to achieve long-term smoking cessation.