Can relapse prevention interventions help adults who have quit smoking while hospitalized to maintain abstinence?

Abstract

RCT evidence regarding interventions to prevent relapse among adults who have quit smoking while hospitalized is insufficient to allow conclusions. Relapse prevention interventions, such as post‐discharge telephone or in‐person counseling/buddy support and nicotine patch therapy, do not appear to improve abstinence rates on follow‐up after discharge among patients who achieve abstinence in the hospital. In both behavioral and drug intervention trials, both control and intervention groups received a brief in‐hospital intervention before discharge. Due to uncertainty regarding allocation concealment and blinding of participants and outcome assessors, as well as small numbers of trials and participants, the quality of these trials is uncertain. In addition, generalizability of trial results may be limited, as all included trial participants were 50 to 60 years of age, all participants in one trial were women, and two trials comprised solely patients with cardiovascular disease. For effects of relapse prevention in other populations, see CCA 2613 (for pregnant women), 2615 (for adults who quit smoking alone), and 2616 (for adults who quit smoking after receiving assistance).