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 q uit, 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 Denve r 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 = 4 2.0%, 49.4%). Adjusted for age and sex, the proportion of smokers in this p opulation 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 intentio ns (P = 0.001) and self-efficacy (P < 0.001) to quit. Conclusions. Targeting smokers who perceive that their illness is smoking-r elated may optimize inpatient smoking interventions. (C) 1999 American Heal th Foundation and Academic Press.