Tobacco Use Patterns in a Southern US HIV Clinic

Smoking rates are two to three times higher among people living with HIV and AIDS compared with the general population, but the prevalence of tobacco use among this population in the Charleston, SC region has not been established. To understand cigarette use, previous quit attempts, historic use of cessation therapies, and interest in cessation, a quality improvement project was implemented to survey smoking behaviors among this population.

During January-May 2010, HIV-infected patients arriving to the Medical University of South Carolina Infectious Diseases clinic were asked to complete a survey. Clinical and sociodemographic data were collected and analyzed using χ(2), and one-way analysis of variance models.

Of unduplicated clinic encounters, 514 (75%) of patients completed the smoking survey. Less than half of responders were current (205, 40%) or former (42, 8%) smokers, with smoking prevalence higher for Caucasian males. Among current smokers, 170 (85%) reported having ever attempted to quit with the majority making a quit attempt without medication therapy (143, 83%). Nearly half of all current smokers (97, 49%) reported an active interest in speaking with a physician about quitting. Smoking status did not have meaningful relationships with HIV biomarkers, even when stratified by race and gender.

This study supports that high rates of smoking exist in the south among people living with HIV and AIDS and demonstrated a need for smoking cessation interventions among these patients. These data have potentiated the hiring of a clinical pharmacist to aid in implementation of smoking cessation therapies in a more systematic and formal way.