COPD Positive Screening with Spirometry Increases Motivation to Quit Tobacco Smoking in an Addiction Treatment Center

Providing an on-site immediate diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and lung age in tobacco smokers could be a motivational tool for smoking cessation. Our aim was to investigate the effects of an abnormal spirometry results on motivational change and subsequent smoking cessation. We conducted a retrospective analysis of smoking status after 3 months of tobacco counseling. Patients were recruited in an addiction outpatient center. Spirometry results were obtained with a portable device during the first visit. The sample was thus divided in 3 groups: COPD, subthreshold-group (no COPD but abnormal lung age) and normal spirometry. Among the three groups, we compared the immediate motivation change, difference in Q-MAT motivation scale score after minus before spirometry (Kruskal-Wallis test) and the smoking status after 3 months (Fisher test). We included 48 patients (37 males, median age 44 years, median cigarette-per-day 20). Spirometry results divided the sample in COPD (N = 13), subthreshold (N = 11) and normal group (N = 24). Mean Q-MAT score change after spirometry was different between groups (p = 0.019), greater in COPD (4.62 ± 3.38) than normal group (1.46 ± 3.11), and lower in patient with a co-occuring hazardous alcohol use (p = 7.6 × 10^-3). Three-months smoking status was different between spirometry results groups (p = 0.0021). COPD (5/13, 38.5%) and subthreshold patients (6/10, 60.0%) had stopped more frequently than patients from the normal-group (2/22, 9.1%). The effect of immediate spirometry results on motivation to quit varies according to the screened pulmonary damages and hazardous alcohol use. It could be a useful tool in addiction treatment centers.