Feasibility of collecting computer-facilitated patient-reported tobacco use, interest, and preferences for smoking cessation in an outpatient thoracic surgery and oncology setting.

Introduction: Effective strategies are needed to facilitate collection of tobacco use information and integrate smoking cessation treatment into the routine care of all high-risk patient populations to improve clinical outcomes. The objective of this study was to establish the feasibility of collecting computer-facilitated patient-reported tobacco use, identify patient interest and preferences for smoking cessation in an outpatient thoracic surgery and oncology setting with higher prevalence of tobacco use than the general population.
Methods: A brief patient-administered tobacco screening survey was handed out on an iPad in the waiting room of a thoracic surgery and oncology practice setting to sequential patients with varying diagnoses. Tobacco use, household exposure to tobacco, and interest and preferences for smoking cessation treatment were recorded. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's chi-squared test were used for analysis.
Results: Of the 599 surveys administered, 594 (99%) were completed. Self-reported smoking status included 36.4% (n=218) never smokers, 53.3% (n=319) former smokers, and 10.4% (n=62) current smokers. Among current smokers, 45.2% (n=28) were interested in receiving smoking cessation treatment. Preferences for treatment included: 21.4% (n=6) who wanted Quitline only, 25% (n=7) medication alone, and 53.6% (n=15) combined Quitline plus medication. Current smokers (55.7%, n=34) were more likely to live in households with tobacco exposure compared to those with former (11.4%, n=36) or never smokers (8.3%, n=18) (p<0.0001).
Conclusions: Implementing a computer-facilitated system to screen for current smoking and provide smoking cessation services was feasible in the outpatient thoracic surgery and oncology setting. Almost half of the smokers indicated an interest in receipt of smoking cessation treatment. Household exposure was more frequent among current smokers, therefore routine screening for secondhand smoke exposure from other household members is an important consideration in developing smoking cessation treatment plans to mitigate health risks among vulnerable patient populations.
Competing Interests: The authors have each completed and submitted an ICMJE form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. The authors declare that they have no competing interests, financial or otherwise, related to the current work. E. Mazzola reports that in the past 36 months he received consulting fees for statistical consulting from The VeraMedica LLC. R. Bueno reports that in the past 36 months grants were received from Verastem, Genetech, Roche, Myriad Genetics, Novartis, Siemens, Gritstone, Epizyme, MedGenome, Merck, Bicycle Therapeutics, Bayer, Intuitive Surgical, Northpond, NCI, NIH, DoD, NIBIB, NHLBI and payment for expert testimony from Thornton Law Firm LLP, Blankingship & Keith, PC, Dolan | Dobrinsky | Rosenblum | Bluestein, Kelley | Uustal, Foster & Eldridge LLP, Adler | Cohen | Harvey | Wakeman | Guekguezian LLP. Finally R. Bueno reports that in the past 36 months patents licensed to BWH and stock or stock options (equity/patents) were payed from Navigation Sciences. J.P. Winickoff reports that in the past 36 months, he received a payment as an expert witness in litigation against the tobacco industry. M.E. Cooley reports that since the initial planning of the work, payments were received from the National Cancer Institute ( Grant P30CA006516).
(© 2022 Nayak M.M. et al.)