Smoking behaviour and attitudes in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. The Radboud experience

¹ Nijmegen University Hospital St. Radboud, The Netherlands

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: l.noyez{at}ctc.umcn.nl.

	Abstract

Changes in smoking behaviour and attitudes of 2642 patients, undergoing cardiac surgery, between January 2000 and July 2008 were studied. All patients completed a preoperative questionnaire concerning smoking behaviour and attitude. Study endpoints are behaviour and attitude in relation to tobacco use in hospitals, cessation smoking before and after the operation. Over the years there have been no notable differences in smoking behaviour, however significantly less patients accept smoking in the hospital (0.9% versus 5.3%). Signifcantly more patients stopped within the 2 weeks before surgery (9.4% versus 5.3%). The percentage of patients who did not have the intention to stop smoking after the operation decreased not significantly. Significantly less older patients smoke (1.6% versus 13.4%) and are less tolerant towards smoking in the hospital (1.8% versus 4.1%). A signifcant higher percentage of older patients have stopped smoking over 5 years before the operation. Concerning the intention to stop smoking after the operation, there is no signifcant difference. These results show that over the years, patients undergoing cardiac surgery seem to be more aware about the relation between health and smoking. This is not related to the type of operation, however apparently with age. Keywords: Cardiac surgery; Smoking; Behaviour; Attitude