| Summary: | Background
Smoking among cancer patients is related to poor
treatment outcomes and lower quality of life. Intensive treatment of cancer patients
in secondary care offers opportunities to deliver more intensive cessation
support. As a first step in creating appropriate stop smoking interventions it
is important to characterise smoking patterns among cancer patients.
Methods
We conduct an ongoing cross-sectional survey among adult cancer patients treated at the Dolnośląskie Centrum Onkologii (DCO; Lower Silesian Oncology Center) in the city of Wroclaw, Poland. Data are being collected on smoking status, dependence, quitting history and motivation, and cessation support received.
Results
Among 62 cancer patients surveyed through a pilot questionnaire to date, 47 were ever smokers, of whom 50% were
current daily smokers (52% women), smoking on average 17 cigarettes per day
(range 6-40). A majority of current smokers (70%) wanted to quit, 56.5%
tried to quit smoking at least once a year in the past 10 years, 100% tried to
quit at least once and 30% tried to quit more than 3 times or more in the past
12 months. Only 30% has ever received any advice on quitting from a healthcare
professional, 35% ever used any cessation medications, and only 17% believed
that smoking cessation support available to them was of sufficient quality. Among
current daily smokers, 52% lived with other smokers, 52% did not know when to
find support with sustaining abstinence, and 40% were not sure how to manage
crises moments in abstinence on their own. Data collection continues and
updated results will be presented at the conference.
Conclusions
Secondary care cancer patients in Poland who are smoking tend to be moderately dependent and are motivated to quit. However, most are not aware of the available cessation
support, and only about a third has ever received support with quitting or used
cessation pharmacotherapy.
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