Telling Smokers How Old Their Lungs Are Works
March 17th, 2008 | by admin |According to a study published by BMJ, smokers whowere told their lung age were significantly more likely to quit thanthose who did not receive the information.
Usually, when patients go to the doctor to have their lungs checked,they receive complex lung data. The idea of a lung age was developed tohelp patients better understand these data and to demonstrate thatsmoking has a premature aging effect on the lungs. Lung age can bethought of as the age of the average healthy person with similar lungfunction to the individual.
There is no current evidence indicating that telling people their lungage increases their propensity to quit, and so researcher Gary Parkesand colleagues decided to test this idea. Their working hypothesis isthat telling smokers their lung age would lead to quitting and theknowledge would be especially effective in patients with the most lungdamage.
A sample of 561 current smokers - older than 35 years of age and fromfive general practices in Hertfordshire - participated in the study.The researchers initially collected information onage, smoking history, and medical conditions.
A spirometer was used to test lung function before the researchersrandomly assigned the participants to two groups. Spirometers recordthe volume and rate at which a patient exhales air from the lungs.
After the spirometer reading, the intervention group received moredetailed results about lung age and a diagram that explained howsmoking ages the lungs. They were also told that the rate of lungdeterioration could be reduced if they quit smoking. The control groupreceived the raw data results of the spirometer and no furtherexplanation -just a number for forced expiratory volume in one second(FEV1).
Both the intervention and the control groups were encouraged to quitsmoking and were offered referral to local NHS services designed tohelp people quit. In addition, the researchers told both groups thatthey would receive another lung function assessment after 12 monthstime.
Upon follow-up, 98% of participants received breath and saliva tests.Results showed that 13.6% of patients in the intervention group and6.4% of patients in the control group had successfully quit smoking.That is, patients who were told their lung age 12 months priorwere about twice as likely to have quit smoking than those who were notgiven that piece of information.
Contrary to their original hypothesis, the researchers found in boththe intervention and control groups, people with worsespirometric lung age results were no more likely to have quit thanthose with normal lung age results. This is rather unexpected, and itindicates that simply knowing what one’s lung age is helps a smokerquit, regardless of the actual lung age. Additional research isnecessary in order to shed light on the psychological reasons behindthis finding.
Since smoking cessation rates can be increased if primary carephysicians provide spirometry and lung age information topatients, the authors suggest that it may be wise to screensmokers over 35 years of age in order to reduce smoking and improveearly diagnosis of chronic lung disease. Parkes and colleagues alsoacknowledge that a formal economic evaluation should be conducted toestimate the cost effectiveness of this new and simple intervention.
An editorial in the same journal adds that the best way to communicatethe lung age results of spirometry is with a graphic display.
Effect on smoking quit rate of telling patients their lungage: the Step2quit randomised controlled trial
Gary Parkes, Trisha Greenhalgh, Mark Griffin, and Richard Dent
BMJ(March 2008). 336:598-600.
doi:10.1136/bmj.39503.582396.25
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Written by: Peter M Crosta
Copyright: Medical News Today
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