Issue 180 Item 14 Diabetics Have Harder Time Quitting Smoking Than Other Smokers

Diabetics have lower cessation rates than others.

Presented to attendees of CHEST 2003, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, data showing these results, from the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore–Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, New York.
The program consisted of six weekly sessions involving psychological support, pharmacologic interventions, and behavioral modification, which Ms. Reichert described as the cornerstone of the approach. She and her colleagues were particularly interested in how those with endocrine disorders respond to the program, because there is essentially no data on this, Ms. Reichert said.

The investigators collected data on 522 participants, 72 with endocrine disorders. Of these, there were 35 diabetics and 37 with thyroid disorders, consisting of both hyper- and hypothyroidism. Fully 75% of these 72 participants had comorbidities.

Both diabetic patients and those thyroid disorders had tried to quit smoking an average of three times. Diabetic participants had a significantly heavier smoking history, with 50.1 pack-years compared with 33.6 pack-years for thyroid patients. Eighty percent of both groups reported "general health concerns" as a reason for smoking and nearly 40% reported that cigarettes "controlled their lives," but Ms. Reichert said that diabetic patients scored higher on both of these measures than those with thyroid disorders.
Quit rates were 56.3% for those with thyroid disorders compared with 40% for diabetic patients. Overall quit rate for the entire cohort was 50.2%.

Panel moderator Diane E. Stover, MD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York City, speculated that the number of nicotine receptors in the brain may correlate with the disease state, making quitting more difficult.
CHEST 2003: Poster: Endocrine Disorders Amongst a Cohort of Patients Undergoing Smoking Cessation. Presented Oct. 29, 2003.

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