TCTMD: Study IDs Patients Most Likely to Quit Smoking After ASCVD Event

Fewer than one in five patients quit smoking after an atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) event, but more serious events tended to track with an increased rate of cessation, according to a large registry study.

Both the negative effects of smoking and the profound benefits of smoking cessation are widely recognized by cardiologists and patients alike, yet event rates remain high for those who don’t stop.

“Smoking is such an addictive process that's just hard to get people to quit smoking,” lead author Vittal Hejjaji, MD, MSc (Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, Kansas City, Missouri), told TCTMD. “If they have gotten to the point where they have gotten some form of cardiac event, that probably means that they have been smoking for many, many years. And our efforts to get them to quit smoking have been so futile for so many years that I think the healthcare community in general, including myself, have just been so frustrated. So we oftentimes kind of gloss over that.”

Read the full TCTMD article: Study IDs Patients Most Likely to Quit Smoking After ASCVD Event