Admission to hospital can be the tipping point in a smoker's struggle to kick the habit, according to new research from University College Dublin's School of Public Health and Population Science.
The study of more than 1,000 smokers admitted to St Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin, found that hospital restrictions and smoking cessation support services contributed to a notable reduction in many people's smoking habits.
The smokers, admitted to hospital for a variety of ailments, were surveyed on their smoking history and then re-surveyed out of hospital, seven months later. More than 47 per cent of the respondents did not smoke during their time in hospital and 42.9 per cent reported smoking less than usual, a change most attributed to a lack of designated smoking areas or advice from doctors, nurses and other staff.
Seven months later, those numbers dropped significantly, with just over 7 per cent stopping smoking completely. However, Kirsten Doherty, the UCD researcher who carried out the study, said that number could be much higher if all smokers admitted to hospital were provided with proper support services. "Hospitalisation is a real window of opportunity to help [ smokers] stop, because many stop during admission," she said. "A sizeable number of people wanted help and didn't get it."
Just 23 per cent of those surveyed remembered getting support in relation to smoking, with women receiving less help than men. Those who did receive some kind of help were more likely to decrease their smoking or quit completely following their return home.
"Those who stopped smoking were more likely to have remembered getting advice about stopping smoking," Ms Doherty said. "People are grateful to get help to stop smoking and we should provide those services."
Ms Doherty said all hospitals should restrict smoking areas and encourage all patients not to smoke.
According to Prof Cecily Kelleher of St Vincent's University Hospital, health professionals need to shift their thinking about smoking and their patients' path to quitting the habit with better support services and long-term help.
"It's resource-intensive, but we should be treating addiction as a health problem in and of itself, not as a social problem where you're just sent outside to smoke," she said. "It should be a policy issue, not just a social issue."
St Vincent's has a comprehensive policy under which all patients are referred to smoking cessation services, and Prof Kelleher hopes other hospitals will follow suit. "Health professionals are more likely to treat [smoking and addiction] as a medical issue if there are good smoking cessation resources. It should be standard policy."