PC1142: Unsuccessful Prior Attempts to Quit Smoking Impact Future Quit Plans Set During Inpatient Tobacco Cessation Counseling

Background: Inpatient tobacco cessation counseling is an intervention offered during hospital admission that helps patients develop plans to quit tobacco use. Developing these plans requires a holistic understanding of a patient’s prior history with tobacco, exploring both chemical addiction and psychological aspects associated with smoking. Many patients who request inpatient counseling have attempted to quit smoking in the past -- however, a subset of these patients have been unsuccessful at quitting for more than 24 hours. Patients with past experiences with quitting and relapse may require different approaches to creating effective future quit plans when compared to those who have never attempted to quit before.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review on 505 inpatient tobacco cessation consults at Albany Medical Center. Consults of patients of ages 18-89 from 2017-2020 were analyzed for quit attempt information and quit timeline decision. We categorized quit attempt timelines as one of the following: “Future Date,” “Before Admission,” “Not Ready To Set a Date,” and “On Admission.”

Results: Fischer analysis showed that patients with unsuccessful prior quit attempts [i.e. an inability to stop use for 24 hours] chose different quit timelines than those who had successful prior quit attempts [i.e. successful cessation for a minimum of 24 hours] (p = 0.006). Chi squared analysis and two-tailed confidence interval tests shows that patients with unsuccessful prior quit attempts were more likely to choose “Not Ready To Set a Date” than patients with successful prior quit attempts (95% CI [0.0375, 0.3041], p = 0.008).

Conclusion: These results suggest that patients who have failed prior quit attempts have a different outlook on future quit plans when compared to those who have succeeded in prior quit attempts, possibly due to hesitancy or other barriers associated with tobacco cessation. By understanding the impact of unsuccessful prior quit attempts on future quit plans, healthcare providers can further improve and personalize the tobacco cessation counseling process and help more patients cease tobacco use, both during and after an inpatient hospital stay.