Factors influencing smoking cessation in Lebanese patients with bladder cancer: A cross sectional study

Bladder cancer (BCa) is a very common urological cancer. Literature showed smoking as a main risk factor for BCa however patients may not be well-informed about the relation between smoking and BCa. Urologists play a crucial role in educating patients about smoking risks and encouraging cessation. The objective is to discover sociodemographic factors that influence the success rate of smoking cessation and other behavioral changes in a sample of smoking Lebanese patients diagnosed with BCa.

A cross sectional study was conducted using a phone survey composed of 53 questions assessing the patients' knowledge that they had or received from their treating physician about smoking as risk factor for BCa. A sample of patients diagnosed with BCa between 2015 and 2020 were contacted and data was collected between the months of September 2022 and May 2023. Inclusion criteria consisted of adult patients with a diagnosis of BCa and a history of smoking while exclusion criteria consisted of unreachable patients. 260 patients were chosen, 182 patients responded making the response rate 70 % RESULTS: Our sample size consisted of 182 patients was composed of 143 males (78.6 %) and 39 females (21.4 %), 97 (53.3 %) are currently smokers of which 50 (51.5 %) tried but failed, 41 (42.3 %) found no benefit in stopping and 6 (6.2 %) were not counseled. 145 patients (79.7 %) knew about smoking as a risk factor for BCa, with only 6 (3.3 %) knowing before their diagnosis. The multivariate analysis has shown that women (p = 0.010), patients with higher educational level (p = 0.004) tend to stop smoking after diagnosis with BCa more than men and people with lower educational level. Also there was a positive correlation between urologist counseling and smoking cessation (p = 0.03).

These findings showed that people had little knowledge about smoking as risk factor for BCa. A need for nationwide awareness campaigns about smoking risks specially targeting lower educational level patients and men or implicating stricter laws for smoking. Also a need of improving in smoking cessation counseling of urologists.