Intro:

Active smoking plays a crucial role in cardiovascular disease. We looked at the rate of attendance to primary and secondary care amongst current smokers with increased QRISK and CAT scores.

Methodology:

Data were drawn retrospectively from electronic medical records from a large tertiary care hospital covering Staffordshire region over a one year period 2019-2020. Data  was extracted from lung cancer screening cohort.

Results:

The data comprised of 1232 patients (516 female, 716 male). Of these, 566 were ex-smokers and 666 current smokers. Average age was 62 years.

Analysis was done using ANOVA. This confirms that current heavy smokers, had an increased QRISK score >10 (p value <0.05, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.02). 1 year mortality in this group was 2.8%.

Heavy smokers were not at an increased risk of attending primary care (p value 0.862) or at increased risk of unplanned secondary care admissions (p value 0.09) as compared to light smokers. Median length of hospital stay was 8 (0 ? 16) bed days in heavy smokers as compared to 4 bed days (0 ? 8) in ex smokers.

Female ex smokers had fewer hospital attendances as compared to female current smokers, male current and ex smokers (p value <0.05, tests statistic 4.207).

A high CAT score was documented as >20 denoting impact of COPD on patient's life. It was not identified as a predictor of increased attendance to primary or secondary care.

Conclusion:

Heavy smokers have a higher economic burden on acute secondary care on account of higher number of bed days. Early smoking cessation intervention may help reduce attendance into secondary care.