Patient-reported recall of smoking cessation interventions from a health professional

Objective

To determine the prevalence and characteristics of current cigarette smokers who report receiving health care provider interventions (‘5A's’: ask, advise, assess, assist, arrange) for smoking cessation.

Methods

Data came from the 2009–2010 National Adult Tobacco Survey, a telephone survey of United States adults aged ≥ 18 years. Among current cigarette smokers who reported visiting a health professional in the past year (n = 16,542), estimates were calculated overall and by sex, age, race/ethnicity, education, income, health insurance coverage, and sexual orientation.

Results

Among smokers who visited a health professional (75.2%), 87.9% were asked if they used tobacco, 65.8% were advised to quit, and 42.6% were asked if they wanted to quit. Among those wanting to quit, 78.2% were offered assistance and 17.5% had follow-up arranged. Receipt of the ‘ask’ component was lower among males and uninsured individuals. Receipt of the ‘advise’ and ‘assess’ components was lower among those aged 18–24 and uninsured individuals. Receipt of the ‘assist’ component was lower among non-Hispanic blacks. No differences were observed for the ‘arrange’ component.

Conclusions

Many current smokers report receiving health care provider interventions for smoking cessation. Continued efforts to educate, encourage, and support all health professionals to provide effective, comprehensive tobacco cessation interventions to their patients may be beneficial.