Addressing smoking in patients following discharge from Intensive Care

Self referral to QUIT program assessed by follow-up phone call

Despite a dramatic decline in tobacco smoking prevalence, current smoking rates have plateaued and smoking remains the leading cause of preventable diseases and death in Australia. Smoking rates in ICU patients are higher than the general population, offering an opportunity for intervention, especially as there is good evidence that many smokers do consider cessation following an ICU admission. Thus surviving an ICU admission potentially provides a unique opportunity to promote long-term smoking cessation. Whilst smoking cessation interventions have been evaluated in hospital settings, the optimal intervention remains unclear and no studies looking at combination nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and counselling have been performed specifically in ICU survivors. Our goal is to conduct a randomized controlled trial comparing standard care (ad hoc advice to patients and NRT) to a formal brief counselling intervention in addition to protocolized NRT. The aim is to improve smoking cessation rates in ICU survivors and thus improve their morbidity and mortality.