Lung Cancer Screening-Focused Tobacco Treatment Program May Not Improve Smoking Cessation

This article is part of MPR’s coverage of the CHEST Virtual 2020 meeting.

High quality communication in tobacco treatment programs with provided lung cancer screenings was significantly associated with self-efficacy for smoking cessation compared to programs that primarily focused on lung cancer screenings with secondary smoking cessation treatment, according to study results presented at the CHEST Annual Meeting 2020, held virtually from October 18 to 21.

Study authors conducted a cross-sectional analysis to assess the association between patient-clinician communication quality with smoking cessation self-efficacy and stage of change in patients undergoing 2 different programs. In total, 229 active smokers were included: 177 from lung cancer screening-focused programs in VA Portland and VA Minneapolis, and 52 from a smoking cessation program with secondary lung cancer screenings to qualifying patients at Duke University’s Smoking Cessation Clinical Program.

At baseline between smoking cessation and lung cancer screening-focused programs, 94% and 76% of patients wanted to quit smoking, respectively. High quality communication was significantly associated with smoking cessation in the tobacco treatment program with secondary lung cancer screening focus (odds ratio [OR], 11.8; 95% CI, 2.2-62.4), but not in lung cancer screening-focused programs (OR, 1.2; 95% CI, 0.5-3.0). In both programs, communication quality was not associated with stage of change.

“[B]rief cessation interventions within the context of [lung cancer screening]-focused programs may not be enough to influence tobacco use, even with optimal communication quality,” concluded the study authors.

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Reference

Desalvo J, Schweiger L, Melzer A, Davis J, Slatore C. Lung cancer screening and smoking cessation readiness: role of patient-clinician communication in differing types of lung cancer screening programs. Presented at: the CHEST Virtual Annual Meeting 2020; October 18-21, 2020. Abstract 2375.

This article originally appeared on Pulmonology Advisor