AB1480-PARE Motivation of rheumatoid arthritis patients for smoking cessation

Background The intensive nursing care algorithm in the individual treatment of a rheumatoid arthritis patient includes the “treat to target” treatment approach while predicting the extended role of a nurse in patient care. Nurse’s responsibility for patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis includes a deeper knowledge of the patient’s health status (14 activities – Virginia Henderson), implementation of customised nursing care, education, consultation, as well as offering support to patients and their families. Smoking is a major global health issue due to increasing tobacco use and problems associated with cessation of smoking. Methods The study group comprised of 90 patients (34 male, 56 female) aged 56 to 72 years, (mean 64.29 years) treated in an outpatient clinic of Department of Rheumatology, University Medical Centre Maribor, Slovenia. All patients suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. 34 (44%) of them were smokers, 54 (44%) non-smokers and 11.11% of them used to smoke, 45 patients were treated with biological disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (bDMARDs) The research is based on quantitative methodology. Questionnaire was used as the research method. For statistical analysis, a t-test and Spearman correlation was used. Results The analysis did not show any statistically significant correlations between gender, age, or level of patients’ education and desire to quit smoking. Nor we found any statistically significant correlations with patients’ awareness to smoking – among those who are treated and those who are not treated with bDMARDs. Conclusions Every nurse should offer advice to rheumatoid arthritis patients to quit smoking as this is the best decision rheumatoid arthritis patients can make in order to improve their health. This mission carried out by a nurse is of great importance not only for the patient but also for public health. Nurses need to understand the motives and obstacles in association with smoking cessation. In addition, they need to be aware of the options that are available to help patients quit smoking. The most important factor for an effective smoking cessation is motivation. Important negative factor that impact smoking cessation is the pleasure while smoking. References [1] Harris HE, Tweedie F, White M, Samson K. How to Motivate Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis to Quit Smoking. J Rheumatol. 2016Apr;43(4):691–8. [2] Chang K, Yang SM, Kim SH, Han KH, Park SJ, Shin JI. Smoking and rheumatoid arthritis.Int J Mol Sci. 2014Dec 3;15(12):22279–95. [3] Baka, Z. Buzas, E & Nagy, G., 2009. Rheumatoid arthritis and smoking: putting the pieces together. Arthritis Research and Therapy,11(4), pp. 238. [4] Buczkowski, K., Marcinowicz, Ł., Czachowski S, & Piszczek, E., 2014. Motivations toward smoking cessation, reasons for relapse, and modes of quitting: results from a qualitative study among former and current smokers. Patient Preference and Adherence, 8, pp. 1353–1363. [5] Chaiton, M., et al., 2016. Estimating the number of quit attempts it takes to quit smoking successfully in a longitudinal cohort of smokers. BMJ Open, 6(6), p. e011045. Disclosure of Interest None declared