The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of smoking status after a diagnosis of lung cancer
on reported pain levels. We conducted a telephone survey of patients with lung cancer identified
from four participating sites between September 2004 and July 2006. Patients were asked to rate
their usual pain level over the past week on a 0-10 rating scale on which 0 was ‘no pain’ and 10 ‘pain
as bad as you can imagine’. We operationally defined persistent smokers as patients who reported
continuing to smoke after their lung cancer diagnosis. A logistic regression analyses was used to test
the hypothesis that persistent smokers report higher usual pain levels than non-smokers. Overall, 893
patients completed the survey. The majority (76%) was found to have advanced cancer (Stages IIIb
and IV). The mean age was 63 (SD=10). Seventeen percent of the patients studied were categorized
as persistent smokers. The mean pain score for the study sample was 3.1 (sd=2.7) and 41% reported
moderate (4-6) or severe pain (7-10). A greater proportion of persistent smokers reported moderate
or severe pain than non-smokers or former smokers (p