Prospective determinants of smoking cessation in COPD patients within a high intensity or a brief counseling...

The aims of this study were to identify prospective determinants of smoking cessation in COPD patients, and to assess whether prospective determinants vary between two different cessation interventions.

Two hundred and twenty-five moderate to severe COPD patients were randomly allocated to two smoking cessation interventions. One-year cotinine-validated continuous abstinence rates were 9% for the minimal intervention strategy for lung patients (LMIS) and 19% for the SmokeStopTherapy (SST). The baseline characteristics that showed a significant univariate relationship with 1-year continuous abstinence (p<.20) were included in the logistic regression model. This procedure was performed for each intervention separately. Variables that did not remain independent predictors were removed.

For the SST separately, no independent significant predictor remained. For the LMIS, attitude towards smoking cessation (OR: 11.8; 95% CI: 1.7-81.5; p=.013) and cotinine level (OR: 2.1; 95% CI: 1.08-3.93; p=.028) remained significant predictors. Within the LMIS, 31% of the variance in continuous abstinence was explained by these variables (p=.003).

This study suggests that a moderately intensive intervention (LMIS) is primarily suitable for COPD patients with a positive attitude regarding smoking cessation. The more intensive SST can be an alternative for patients without such baseline characteristic.

This stepped-care approach in smoking cessation counseling may be useful in clinical practice and will enable health care providers to match interventions to individual needs and increase efficiency.