Mensagens de texto e aconselhamento por telefone como suporte à cessação tabágica entre fumantes em alta hospitalar: um estudo clínico de viabilidade

Abstract

Studies show that tobacco treatment for hospitalized smokers is effective. Hospitalized smokers that receive inpatient treatment and post-discharge follow up for at least 1 month are more successful at quitting. Many studies suggest that counseling by phone and text messages based on Motivational Interviews are viable alternatives to supporting attempts to quit. The present thesis had the objective to evaluate the effectiveness of telephone counseling related to text messages compared to standard care on smoking cessation among patients discharged from the hospital. It was aimed to: a) investigate the prevalence and smoking related variables of patients admitted to the University Hospital at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, HU/UFJF; b) analyze the feasibility and effectiveness of telephone counseling and text messaging for supporting quit attempts among post discharged patients; c) to design a two-arm clinical trial protocol to compare the use of text messages associated with phone counseling to support quit attempts. Those objectives were developed in three different articles with specific methods and materials. The data from the first study was collected through electronic medical records and structured questionnaires for evaluation of smoking related variables including the Fagerström tolerance questionnaire (FTQ), depressive disorders scale (Patient-Health Questionnaire 2, PHQ2), and alcohol consumption-AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test). The mean, standard deviation and frequency were used as the variable type. The chi-squared test was used to compare the alcohol use and tobacco among the different clinical diagnoses, as well as the alcohol use among smokers and non-smokers. The results showed that 16.2% of patients were smokers and 22% were hazardous drinking users. The percentage of patients who had hazardous drinking use in the past year as well as had smoked in the past thirty days was significantly higher among the group of infectious and parasitic diseases, IPD (42.9% and 35.7% respectively) than in the other diagnosis conditions (15.3% versus 21.1%). The second study included sixty-six smokers. Forty-four were randomized to the intervention group (telephone counseling and text messages) and twenty-two were included in the control group (only treatment inside the hospital). The primary outcome was self-reported 30-day point prevalence at 1 month postdischarge. The reduction of cigarette use as well as quit rates in the second follow up and medication use were the secondary outcomes. The relative risk (RR) was calculated with 95% confidence interval, and significance level of 5%, for comparison of quit rates and medication use among groups. The groups were compared using the chi-squared test for categorical variables and the independent samples T test for continuous variables. The Mann Whitney test was used for nonparametric samples. A significantly higher percentage of patients who received the intervention reported tobacco abstinence in the third month after randomization compared to the control group (31.8% vs. 9.1%; Relative risk (RR) = 1.45; 95% CI [1, 08-1.95]; p = 0.04). This difference was also higher in the first month after randomization, but not significant (25.0% vs. 9.1%; Relative risk (RR) = 1.35; 95% CI [0.99 -1.85]; p = 0.13). The results were marginally

10 significant (20.5% vs. 9.1%; Relative risk (RR) = 1.44; 95% CI [1.07-1.92]; p = 0.09) for comparison between groups through the verification of carbon monoxide (CO ≤ 6), suggesting that the intervention increases the quit rates in 44%.The third article presented a protocol for a larger trial to be accomplished with 400 smokers. This protocol was designed as the outcome of the preliminary results (article 2) from this thesis. It was aimed to continue the clinical trials for smoking cessation interventions in Brazilian hospitals. All patients will receive brief interventions in the bedside and nicotine replacement therapy to indicated cases. After discharge, patients will be randomly allocated into one of two groups: the intervention group will receive a singular counseling phone call (associated with fifteen days of text messaging) and the control group will receive the standard care. Follow-up assessments will be held one and three months after randomization. The main outcome will be the quit rates at the first month after randomization. A complementary article was presented (Appendix) in order to deepen the discussions on the pragmatic studies in hospital settings.