This study clearly depicts that an Active smoking among patients undergoing interventions for intermittent claudication (IC) is associated with poor outcomes. However, contemporary rates of active smoking in these patients are high. State-level tobacco control policies reduce smoking in the general U.S. population. We evaluated whether state cigarette taxes and 100% smoke-free workplace legislation have an impact on active smoking among patients undergoing interventions for IC. We queried the Vascular Quality Initiative database for peripheral endovascular interventions, infrainguinal bypasses, and suprainguinal bypasses for IC. Active smoking was defined as smoking within 1 month of intervention. We used difference-in-differences, a causal inference technique that adjusts for secular time trends, to isolate changes in active smoking due to state cigarette taxes (adjusted for inflation) and implementation of smoke-free workplace legislation. Models controlled for age, sex, race/ethnicity, insurance type, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, state, and year. We tested interactions of taxes with age and insurance. Cigarette tax increases appear to be an effective strategy to reduce active smoking among patients undergoing interventions for IC. Older patients and Medicare recipients are most affected by tax increases.
Reference link- https://www.jvascsurg.org/article/S0741-5214(20)31454-3/fulltext
