Clinicians' Advice to Quit Smoking

Last Updated:

February 2018

Introduction

Clinicians’ advice to quit smoking can by itself contribute 5 to 10 percentage points toward quitting among smoking patients and much more if coupled with behavioral therapy and pharmacological treatment of nicotine addiction. In addition, even minimal clinical interventions have been shown to be cost effective in increasing smokers’ motivation to quit.

If a patient wants to quit, the national guidelines recommend that the clinician follow the “5 A’s” (ask, advise, assess, assist, and arrange). For patients who are not yet ready to quit, the clinician should instead provide a brief intervention designed to promote the motivation to quit. Experts have suggested that a wide variety of clinicians, including dentists, physicians, and other health professionals such as pharmacists, can effectively implement brief strategies to increase future quit attempts. In fact, many individual pharmacies and one national pharmacy chain have decided not to sell tobacco products, recognizing that the sale of tobacco products conflicts with the role of pharmacies as public health facilities.

Measure

The percentage of adult smokers (aged 18 years and older) who have seen a physician or dentist in the past 12 months and report that the physician or dentist advised them to quit smoking.

Healthy People 2020 Target

The Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) targets are developed based on the National Center for Health Statistics survey of physicians and hospitals. In contrast, the data presented in the Cancer Trends Progress Report are based on reports from patients regarding whether they received smoking cessation advice from their physicians or dentists. Therefore, the data presented in this report cannot be directly compared to the HP2020 objectives. Nevertheless, patient self-report data is a valuable measure of how clinicians’ advice to quit smoking is changing over time.

HP2020 includes targets for physicians’ advice to quit smoking in office-based ambulatory care settings and in hospital ambulatory care settings. The HP2020 objective is for adult smokers to receive tobacco cessation counseling at 21.1 percent of visits to physicians’ offices, and at 24.9 percent of hospital visits . HP2020 also includes targets for dentists’ advice to quit smoking in dental care settings. The HP2020 objective is for patients who use tobacco products to receive cessation counseling at 39.3 percent of dental care visits.

Healthy People 2020 is a set of goals set forth by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Note: Goals are indicated as blue line on Detailed Trend Graphs.

Data Source

The Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey, National Cancer Institute, 1992–2015.

Trends and Most Recent Estimates

Physicians' Advice to Quit Smoking

By Sex

Percentage of smokers aged 18 years and older who have seen a physician in the past year and were advised to quit smoking by sex, 1992-2015
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Most Recent Estimates (2014 to 2015)
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Percent of adults	95% Confidence Interval
	Both Sexes	70.0	69.0 - 71.0
	Male	68.9	67.4 - 70.4
	Female	71.0	69.7 - 72.3

By Race/Ethnicity

Percentage of smokers aged 18 years and older who have seen a physician in the past year and were advised to quit smoking by race/ethnicity, 1992-2015
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Most Recent Estimates (2014 to 2015)
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Percent of adults	95% Confidence Interval
	All Races	70.0	69.0 - 71.0
	Non-Hispanic White	71.0	69.8 - 72.1
	Non-Hispanic Black	70.6	67.4 - 73.6
	Hispanic	63.2	59.4 - 66.8

By Age

Percentage of smokers aged 18 years and older who have seen a physician in the past year and were advised to quit smoking by age, 1992-2015
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Most Recent Estimates (2014 to 2015)
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Percent of adults	95% Confidence Interval
	Ages 18-24	54.7	50.7 - 58.6
	Ages 25+	72.0	71.0 - 73.0

By Sex and Age

Percentage of smokers aged 18 years and older who have seen a physician in the past year and were advised to quit smoking by sex and age, 1992-2015
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Most Recent Estimates (2014 to 2015)
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Percent of adults	95% Confidence Interval
	Males, ages 18-24	51.4	45.4 - 57.5
	Males, ages 25+	71.3	69.9 - 72.8
	Females, ages 18-24	57.9	52.6 - 63.0
	Females, ages 25+	72.6	71.3 - 73.8

By Poverty Income Level

Percentage of smokers aged 18 years and older who have seen a physician in the past year and were advised to quit smoking by poverty income level, 1998-2015
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Most Recent Estimates (2014 to 2015)
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Percent of adults	95% Confidence Interval
	< 200% of the federal poverty level	70.0	68.3 - 71.5
	>= 200% of the federal poverty level	69.5	68.0 - 71.1

By Education Level

Percentage of smokers aged 25 years and older who have seen a physician in the past year and were advised to quit smoking by highest level of education obtained, 1992-2015
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Most Recent Estimates (2014 to 2015)
Overview Graph	Detailed Trend Graphs	Percent of adults	95% Confidence Interval
	Less than High School	74.4	72.0 - 76.7
	High School	73.5	72.1 - 74.9
	Greater than High School	70.2	68.9 - 71.5

Dentists' Advice to Quit Smoking