Objectives: The aim of our study was to determine the smoking cessation rates of the patients who presented to our smoking cessation outpatient clinic and to perform a pulmonary evaluation on these patients.
Methods: Patients who presented to the smoking cessation outpatient clinic of Antalya Training and Research Hospital between January 2015 and December 2018 were included in this study. Routine biochemical and hematological tests, pulmonary function tests (PFT), electrocardiography and posteroanterior lung (PA AC) radiography of the subjects were requested. In addition, all patients were asked to fill out the smoking cessation outpatient clinic evaluation form which includes information on smoking status, Fagerstrom test for nicotine dependence (FTND), hospital anxiety and depression scales and demographic data. The patients were recommended to visit the clinic for monthly controls in the first 3 months and every three months afterwards for the first year. Patients who completely filled out the smoking cessation outpatient clinic evaluation forms were included in the study while those who did not were excluded from the study.
Results: 481 (46.4%) female and 556 (53.6%) male patients with a mean age of 43.6±13.6 years were included in the study. The most commonly recommended smoking cessation methods were determined as bupropion (41.8%), varenicline (38.2%), psychotherapy (18.7%) and nicotine patch (1.4%). Of the patients who presented to the smoking cessation outpatient clinic, 43.1% quit smoking, 49.1% did not quit, and 7.8% couldn’t be reached for collecting information about the smoking cessation status. PFT results of patients were found to be normal with 59.9%, obstructive with 11.8% and restrictive with 28.3%. Posterioranterior (PA) lung radiography findings were interpreted as normal in 72.3% (750), infiltration in 0.6% (7), mass in 0.6% (7), atelectasis in 1.4% (15), effusion in 0.4% (5), interstitial in 3.2% (34) and other (nodule, mediastinum enlargement, sequela findings) in 6.4% (67). For 14.6% (152) of the patients, no chest radiographs were available. It was observed that smoking cessation rates differed according to the medications used by patients and that smoking cessation rates were higher in patients using varenicline and lower in patients using nicotine patch (p=0.01). Smoking cessation statuses of the patients differed by their respective FTND score levels and smoking cessation rates of patients with very high FTND scores were lower than other patients (p=0.01).
Conclusion: We found that demographic data such as gender, marital status, treatment method and dependence score did not have an effect on quitting smoking.