ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Implementation Science
This article is part of the Research TopicImproving and Implementing Addiction CareView all 10 articles
A window of opportunity: A pilot study exploring smoking cessation support during COPD hospitalisation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Sygehus Lillebalt, Vejle, Denmark
- 2Syddansk Universitet, Odense, Denmark
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Background: A significant proportion of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) continue smoking after diagnosis, contributing to increased symptom burden, more frequent exacerbations and poorer long-term outcomes. Hospitalisation due to COPD exacerbation may serve as a "window of opportunity" for delivering smoking cessation support. Aim: This pilot study evaluated the feasibility of integrating structured smoking cessation support into routine inpatient care for patients hospitalised with a COPD exacerbation. Methods: We followed 45 patients admitted for COPD exacerbation who reported active smoking at baseline. Smoking status and COPD symptoms (COPD Assessment Test, CAT) were evaluated at baseline, 1 month and 3 months after discharge. Comparisons were made between participants with smoking and non-smoking status at 1 month follow-up, and across three groups at 3 months: sustained non-smoking, sustained smoking and smoking relapse. Results: At 1 month, 30 patients (66.7%) reported abstinence, and 19 (42.2%) remained abstinent at 3 months. Improvements in mean CAT scores were observed over time, from 22.9 (95% CI=20.0-25.7) at baseline to 13.9 (CI=11.4-16.3) at 1 month and 12.9 (CI=10.1-15.6) at 3 months. A trend towards lower CAT scores were observed for participants with non-smoking status at follow-up, compared with those who were smoking. We observed, that those who sustained non-smoking at follow-up were older, had higher baseline expectations of quitting and reported greater confidence in their ability to stop. However, those who relapsed at three months were the oldest. Being without a partner appeared more common among sustained smoking at follow-up. Conclusion: Smoking cessation support initiated during COPD hospitalisation was feasible and the majority of patients reported short-term abstinence and meaningful reductions in symptom burden. Age, expectations and confidence appeared to affect cessation trajectories, but should be explored further in larger, controlled trials and implementation setups.
Keywords: addiction1, nicotine2, implementation3, respiratory disease4, counseling5
Received: 01 Sep 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Farver-Vestergaard, Løkke and Frolund. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ingeborg Farver-Vestergaard
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