Evaluation of a smoking relapse prevention program for cardiovascular patients

Smoking cessation reduces both the mortality and re-infarction rate amongst smokers who have experienced a myocardial infarction (MI). Smoking cessation programs have tended to be conducted with post-operative or seriously ill patients. In this study, we examined the efficacy of a relapse prevention program for hospital cardiovascular patients who did not require operative procedures or extensive hospitalization. A pre-post, two groups, control trial involving 208 patients (103 in the intervention group) recruited from three coronary care units in large metropolitan hospitals was used to assess the effect of the intervention. Smoking status of self-reported quitters were verified using CO concentrations in expired air. Complete follow-up was obtained from 129 (62.0%) of initial participants. At three months after discharge, the self-report quite rate in the intervention group was 19.4%, significantly higher than in the control group (7.6%) (p = 0.046). This difference persisted at nine months after discharge, when the self reported quit rate was 27.3% in the intervention group and 12.9% in the control group (p = 0.043). A behavior-based smoking cessation program was effective for less serious cardiovascular patients and the effect persisted for nine months after discharge.