Cited by 53Smoking Behavior and CessationHealth Promotion and Cardiovascular PreventionPrimary Care and Health Outcomes

Effect on Cessation Counseling of Documenting Smoking Status as a Routine Vital Sign: An ACORN Study

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Rothemich, S. F., Woolf, S. H., Johnson, R. E., Burgett, A. E., Flores, S. K., Marsland, D. W., Ahluwalia, J. S.·2008·The Annals of Family Medicine

Abstract

PURPOSE: Guidelines encourage primary care clinicians to document smoking status when obtaining patients' blood pressure, temperature, and pulse rate (vital signs), but whether this practice promotes cessation counseling is unclear. We examined whether the vital sign intervention influences patient-reported frequency and intensity of tobacco cessation counseling. METHODS: This study was a cluster-randomized, controlled trial conducted in the Virginia Ambulatory Care Outcomes Research Network (ACORN). At intervention practices, nurses and medical assistants were instructed to assess the tobacco use status of every adult patient and record it with the traditional vital signs. Control practices did not use any systematic tobacco screening or identification system. Outcomes were the proportion of smokers reporting clinician counseling of any kind and the frequency of 2 counseling subcomponents: simple quit advice and more intensive discussion. RESULTS: A total of 6,729 adult patients (1,149 smokers) at 18 primary care practices completed exit questionnaires during a 6-month comparison period. Among 561 smokers at intervention practices, 61.9% reported receiving any counseling, compared with 53.4% of the 588 smokers at control practices, for a difference of 8.6% (P = .04). The effect was largely restricted to simple advice, which was reported by 59.9% of intervention patients and 51.5% of control patients (P=.04). There was no significant increase in more extensive discussion, with 32.5% and 29.3% of patients at intervention and control practices, respectively, reporting this type of counseling (P=.18). CONCLUSIONS: The vital sign intervention promotes tobacco counseling at primary care practices through a modest increase in simple advice to quit. When implemented as a stand-alone intervention, it does not appear to increase intensive counseling.

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  • The Gordian Knot of clinical tobacco control is an inability to achieve more consistent delivery of evidence-based tobacco cessation interventions by real-world healthcare personnel.

    “The Gordian Knot of clinical tobacco control is an inability to achieve more consistent delivery of evidence-based tobacco cessation interventions by real-world healthcare personnel (6, 49–52).”

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  1. Owen N, Davies MJ. Smokers' preference for assistance with cessa- tion. Prev Med. 1990;19(4):424-431.

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Authors
Rothemich, S. F., Woolf, S. H., Johnson, R. E., Burgett, A. E., Flores, S. K., Marsland, D. W., & Ahluwalia, J. S.
Affiliations
  • Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
  • University of Minnesota (US)
Venue
The Annals of Family Medicine
Published
2008-01-01
Volume
6
Issue
1
Pages
60-68
ISSN
  • 1544-1709 (ISSN-L)
  • 1544-1717
OpenAlex
W2144052608
Cited by
53
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
FWCI
5.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • The Annals of Family Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Health Promotion and Cardiovascular Prevention
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Primary Care and Health Outcomes
Keywords
smoking cessation counseling, smoking status documentation, vital signs, tobacco use screening, primary care, smoking cessation, tobacco use
MeSH terms
Adult, Ambulatory Care, Community-Institutional Relations, Counseling, Cross-Sectional Studies, Humans, Primary Health Care, Surveys and Questionnaires, United States, United States Dept. of Health and Human Services, Virginia, Cluster Analysis, Logistic Models, Smoking Cessation, Outcome Assessment, Health Care, Guideline Adherence

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