Tobacco Profile and Evaluation of the DS14 Scale in Patients with Coronary Syndrome

Background: the prevalence of current smokers in patients with coronary syndrome is high. This risk behaviour significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular complications. In the recommendations for the management of cardiovascular diseases, psychosocial and psychological factors are still neglected in practice. The aim of study was to verify the prevalence of tobacco use in hospitalized patients with coronary syndrome, notably to verify the type-D personality and tobacco use in the groups obtained from the evaluation of the DS14 scale. Methods: in this cross-sectional study, we addressed 100 hospitalized patients with coronary syndrome. Results: in the cohort, 48% patient were current smokers, 21% were never smokers, 24% were former smokers, 4% were occasional smokers, and 3% were quitters. Based on the evaluation of DS14, 21% of patients were classified as type-D personality and 38% as non-type-D; we identified two subtypes: the NA group at 23% and the SI group at 18%. In the group of the current smokers, 81% declared that they wanted to quit smoking, 15% of the patients were undecided, and 4% of current smokers did not want to quit. Conclusions: cardiac patients are aware that their disease is related to smoking; despite the severity of their disease, patients’ motivation to change their risky behaviour is low.