The objective of this study was to determine the smoking abstinence rate after hospital discharge in cardiovascular patients who had undergone a brief smoking cessation intervention during hospitalization. The prospective cohort study involved 252 smokers who were admitted to the Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge in Catalonia, Spain. Twenty-four hours after hospital discharge, 76.6% of patients were still abstaining from smoking. At 1, 3, 9 and 12 months, the abstinence rate diminished to 71.4%, 67.2%, 64.1% and 62.2%, respectively. Patients diagnosed with ischemic cardiopathy had a significantly lower probability of a smoking relapse: hazard ratio=0.56 (95% confidence interval, 0.36-0.87). At our center, a brief smoking cessation intervention in cardiovascular patients during hospital admission was found unlikely to result in smoking abstinence following discharge.