Quitline Tobacco Interventions in Hospitalized Patients: A Randomized Trial

Hospitalization provides an opportunity for smokers to quit, but tobacco interventions can require specialized services that are not available to many hospitals. This study tests the hypothesis that a brief intervention to facilitate the use of telephone quitline services for both initial and follow-up counseling is effective in helping patients achieve sustained abstinence.

This was a population-based RCT.

Participants were Olmsted County, MN residents who reported current smoking and were admitted to Mayo Clinic hospitals in Rochester, MN between May 2012 and August 2014.

A control group received brief (~5-minute) cessation advice; an intervention group received a brief (~5-minute) quitline facilitation intervention, with either warm handoff or faxed referral to a national quitline provider. All were offered a 2-week supply of nicotine patches at discharge.

Outcomes included self-reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence at 6 months after hospitalization and quitline utilization. Data analysis was performed from September 2014 to March 2015.

Of the 1,409 eligible patients who were approached, 600 (47%) were randomized. The quitline intake call was completed by 195 subjects (65% of the intervention group). Of these, 128 (66%) completed the first coaching call. Self-reported abstinence rates at 6 months after discharge were identical in both groups (24%).

The quitline facilitation intervention did not improve self-reported abstinence rates compared with a standard brief stop-smoking intervention. These results do not support the effectiveness of quitlines in providing tobacco use interventions to a general population of hospitalized smokers.