Motivation of smoking after smoking cessation in patients with acute myocardial infarction after percutaneous coronary intervention: a qualitative study

Objective To understand the true thoughts of patients to smoke again after smoking cessation post percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) , so as to provide guidance for the nurses to instruct the patients to cease smoking. Methods From May to December 2018, 22 patients with AMI admitted to the Department of Cardiology of a ClassⅢ Grade A hospital in Qingdao were selected as the participants in this study by purposive sampling. By the phenomenological method of qualitative research, in-depth interviews were conducted to the smoking patients who ceased smoking after PCI about their motivation. The data obtained were analyzed and summed up using the Colaizzi phenomenological research method and NVivo12.0 coding software. Results A total of 9 themes were concluded among which 4 themes were motivations of smoking cessation (concerns over the disease, fear on death, the needs of long-term medication, influences from family members) , 5 themes were motivations of re-smoking (influences of life habits, lack of disease-related knowledge, symptoms from smoking cessation, social environment factors, strong work stress) . Conclusions Nurses and nursing managers should pay more attention to the psychological needs in the AMI patients after PCI, so as to avoid or reduce their motivation of re-smoking by measures such as correcting their cognitive bias and intensify the publicity of smoking cessation, hence increase the successful rate of smoking cessation. Key words: Acute myocardial infarction; Percutaneous coronary intervention; Smoking; Re-smoking; Motivation; Qualitative research