Smoking cessation at one year more likely with insular cortex lesion, prestroke intention to quit
FRIDAY, Nov. 4 (HealthDay News) -- For smokers who have a stroke, only 40 percent are nonsmokers at one year following stroke, with insular damage and prestroke intention to stop smoking strongly influencing smoking cessation, according to a study published online Nov. 3 in Stroke.
Rosa Suñer Soler, Ph.D., from Girona University in Spain, and colleagues identified factors associated with smoking cessation during the first year after stroke by assessing sociodemographic, psychological, and lesion-related variables. A total of 110 patients admitted with an acute stroke between 2005 and 2007, and who were smokers at the time of diagnosis, were included and followed-up for a year.
The investigators found that 69.1 percent of the patients had given up smoking on hospital release, but only 40 percent remained nonsmokers at the end of one year. Of the 27 patients with acute stroke lesions in the insular cortex, 19 (70.3 percent) were nonsmokers at one year. Having a stroke lesion in the insular cortex was strongly associated with giving up smoking (odds ratio [OR], 5.42). Compared to precontemplating patients who had no intention of giving up smoking in the near future, those patients contemplating and preparing to give up in the near future were more likely to give up smoking (OR, 7.29).
"Our results show that the variables best predicting smoking cessation in patients with a stroke diagnosis one year after hospital discharge are insular damage and the prestroke intention to stop," the authors write.
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