Smokers Hospitalized in an Urban, Public Hospital: Addiction, Stages of Change, and Self-Efficacy

Background.This study characterizes adult smokers on the medicine service of an urban, public hospital, including stage of change, self-efficacy to quit, and nicotine dependence, and explores relationships between perceived and actual smoking-related illness and these three predictive variables. Methods.Adult patients (n= 154) admitted to the Medicine service of Denver Health Medical Center in October and November 1996 were surveyed using a written questionnaire. Results.The proportion of smokers in this population was 45.7% (95% CI = 42.0%, 49.4%). Adjusted for age and sex, the proportion of smokers in this population was significantly greater than in Colorado (28.8% vs 21.8%,P< 0.001). About half (54.2%) were willing to try free nicotine patches during hospitalization. Among smokers with diseases recognized as smoking-related, 30.4% believed their reason for admission was related to smoking, compared to 20.4% among those with no smoking-related diseases (P= 0.18). Patients who believed their hospitalization was due to smoking had greater intentions (P= 0.001) and self-efficacy (P< 0.001) to quit. Conclusions.Targeting smokers who perceive that their illness is smoking-related may optimize inpatient smoking interventions.