Effectiveness of the tobacco tactics program for psychiatric inpatient veterans: an implementation study.

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the inpatient, nurse-administered Tobacco Tactics program for patients admitted for psychiatric conditions in two Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals compared to a control hospital.

Methods: This is a subgroup analysis of data from the inpatient tobacco tactics effectiveness trial, which was a longitudinal, pre- post-nonrandomized comparison design with 6-month follow-up in the three large Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN) 11 hospitals.

Results: Six-month self-reported quit rates for patients admitted for psychiatric conditions increased from 3.5% pre-intervention to 10.2% post-intervention compared to a decrease in self-reported quit rates in the control hospital (12% pre-intervention to 1.6% post-intervention). There was significant improvement in self-reported quit rates for the pre- versus post-intervention time periods in the Detroit and Ann Arbor intervention sites compared to the Indianapolis control site (P=0.01) and cotinine results were in the same direction.

Conclusion: The implementation of the Tobacco Tactics intervention has the potential to significantly decrease smoking and smoking-related morbidity and mortality among smokers admitted to VA hospitals for psychiatric disorders.