Post Heart Attack Hospital-based Smoking Cessation Programs Help Kick the Butt

Researchers from Emory University have revealed that hospital-based smoking cessation programs, along with referrals to cardiac rehabilitation have significantly helped people quit

Hospital-based smoking cessation programs, along with referrals to cardiac rehabilitation have significantly helped people quit smoking following a heart attack, according to researchers from Emory University.

During the study, the researchers looked at 639 patients who smoked at the time of their hospitalisation for heart attack.

Health Hazards of Smoking Cigarettes
Smoking causes many diseases and affects the overall health of smokers.

Six months later, 297 of the patients - approximately 47 percent of them - had quit smoking.

The research team found that the chances of quitting were greater among patients who received discharge recommendations for cardiac rehabilitation and those who were treated at a facility offering an inpatient smoking cessation program.

However, individual counselling was not associated with quit rates.

Lung Cancer - Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention
Lung cancer is a malignant tumor in the lung tissues. Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer with symptoms like recurrent respiratory diseases.

"The findings are important because cardiac rehabilitation and hospital-based smoking cessation programs appear to be under-utilized in current clinical practice and should be potentially considered as a structural measure of health care quality for patients with heart attack," said Susmita Parashar, study author, division of cardiology, Emory University School of Medicine.

She said the study shows that patients recovering from a heart attack are more likely to quit smoking if they are referred to a cardiac rehabilitation program or if a hospital-based smoking cessation program is available to them.

Heart Attack - Overview
Heart attack is the death of the heart muscle due to loss of blood supply. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. Other names for heart attack include acute myocardial infarction, coronary thrombosis, and coronary occlusion.

The report appears in Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Source-ANI
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Animation of heart attack symptoms
Heart attack can cause symptoms such as Chest pain or discomfort, Shortness of breath and pain in neck, back, arm, or shoulder and is due to blockage of blood supply to the heart muscles