Impact of a regional smoking cessation intervention for vascular surgery patients

Tobacco use is common among vascular surgery patients and negatively impacts outcomes and longevity. In the second quarter of 2018, a statewide vascular quality collaborative launched an initiative across its 35 participating hospitals to promote smoking cessation at the time of surgery. This intervention was based on the Vascular Physician Offer and Report (VAPOR) trial and consisted of 3 components: brief physician-delivered advice, referral to telephone-based counseling, and nicotine replacement therapy. The goal of this study is to evaluate the results of this intervention.

We performed a retrospective analysis of patients undergoing vascular surgery between 2018 and 2020. Procedures included open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, endovascular aneurysm repair, open vascular bypass, open thrombectomy, carotid endarterectomy, and carotid stenting. The primary explanatory variables were receipt of tobacco cessation interventions as documented in the medical record. The primary outcome was tobacco cessation, captured during 30-day and 1-year chart review and/or patient follow-up. A multivariable logistic regression model was calculated to estimate the association of covariates with smoking cessation while adjusting for patient and clinical characteristics.

A total of 13,890 patients underwent surgery during the study period. The mean age was 69.4 ± 10 years; 4687 patients (34%) were female, and 5158 patients (37%) were current smokers. At least one smoking cessation component was delivered to 2245 patients (44% of smokers). The quit rate was 35% among 4671 patients with 30-day follow-up and 43% among 2936 patients with 1-year follow up. On multivariable regression, at 30 days, receiving two intervention components was associated with 1.29 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-1.55) higher odds of quitting. At both time points, smoking cessation was also associated with undergoing an emergent procedure (30-day odds ratio [OR], 1.52; 95% CI, 1.16-1.99; 1-year OR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.01-1.97) and undergoing open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (30-day OR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.20-2.43; 1-year OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.11-2.78).

In a cohort of vascular surgical patients where tobacco use was common, nearly one-half of patients quit smoking 1 year after surgery. Receiving two smoking cessation intervention components was associated with quitting at 30 days. Overall, these results demonstrate encouraging quit rates and identify an opportunity for longer-term intervention to maintain even greater 1-year tobacco cessation.