Smoking-related disease in a VA hospital

An inpatient population was studied to assess the contribution of smoking to the cause of their hospitalization. We established a new methodology to assess a patient population for smoking-related disease, and found that, during a 24-hr period, 32% of all medical and surgical patients studied were hospitalized with smoking-related disease. Moreover, 17% of all medical and surgical patients were hospitalized for diseases that were very highly related to smoking (with risk-ratios greater than 5). On certain services these percentages were much higher. Smoking-related diseases account for a significant proportion of the hospitalizations at the Kansas City Veterans Administration Hospital.