PP.02.30

Abstract

Objective: Smoking is the main preventable cause of death in developed countries and it is widely considered a major cardiovascular risk factor. According to the World Health Organization, smoking may kill 1000 million people in the present century if left without intervention. In that sense, it is mandatory to implement prevention measures as well as smoking cessation (SC) consultations, especially in primary care units. The objective of this research was to study a primary care unit's population in terms of their demographic characteristics, smoking habits, engagement in SC programs, type of intervention used to achieve smoking cessation and overall success rates. Design and method: A retrospective collection of data was made from the patients’ digital clinical files. Patients who engaged in at least one SC consultation between January 2012 and November 2014 were included. Descriptive statistics of the aforementioned characteristics were then performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 20® software. Results: From a total of 15480 patients enrolled in the practice, only 2% were coded as P17 – Tobacco use (ICPC-2 coding). Their mean age was 41,3 years old (yo) and 56% were males. Of those, 12,7% (n = 29) engaged in SC consultations; they had a mean age of 49yo and 80% were males. Their mean tobacco consumption was 22,7 cigarettes per day. 93,1% of these patients preferred a SC intervention that included pharmacological therapy: 41,3% used vareniclin+benzodiazepine, 41,4% used vareniclin alone and 10,3% used a benzodiazepine alone. The overall smoking cessation rate among these patients was 44,8%. Conclusions: Identifying smokers among the practice's population should be a priority, since the national smoking prevalence is estimated in 23%. Because of the low engagement in SC consultations, clear information about the harmful effects of smoking/health gains with SC should be delivered in every opportunity. The obtained success from this program, essentially using pharmacological aid, is significant. It allows patients to benefit from decreased cardiovascular risk and overall health gains. Considering that, dedicated SC consultations should be faced as a priority.