Clinician-delivered Intervention to Facilitate Tobacco Quitline Use by Surgical Patients

Warner DO, Klesges RC, Dale LC, Offord KP, Schroeder DR, Shi Y, Vickers KS, Danielson DR. Anesthesiology. 2011 Feb 10. [Epub ahead of print]

This study examined a clinician-delivered intervention to increase quitline use by adult surgical patients (elective surgery). 300 adults were randomized to usual care (a brief stop-smoking intervention) and the intervention arm (a brief intervention designed to facilitate telephone quitline use). While 19.5% of the intervention group completed the first telephone counseling session, none of the control group completed the first telephone counseling session. While there were no significant differences in the quit rates between groups at 30 or 90 days post-operation, rates tended to be higher in the intervention group. The authors conclude that while clinicians can facilitate quitline use among surgical patients, additional studies need to be done to assess the effectiveness of this approach.