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Impact of medical and dental visits on smoking cessation among United States adults
Methods. We use the 2006-2007 and 2010-2011 Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey. Our sample includes current smokers and former smokers who were smoking every day or some days twelve months before the interview (N = 51,549). We define four cessation outcomes: any annual quit attempts, successful cessation for at least 6 months, intention-to-quit smoking in 30 days, and intention-to-quit smoking in 30 days conditional on any quit attempts. We define two binary indictors of whether an individual reports visiting a medical doctor or dentist in twelve months prior to the interview. We estimate multivariate logistic regression models separately by outcome, controlling for medical and dental indicator , menthol use, cigarette price, nicotine dependence, and other confounders.
Results. Among respondents who visited a medical doctor, 44.5% had any quit attempts, 5.2% had successfully quit smoking, and 18.0% intended to quit smoking. Comparable percentages for those without medical visits were 41.9%, 7.7%, and 13.6%, respectively. Regression results indicate that medical visits are positively associated with any quit attempts (OR=1.077; 95% CI=1.025-1.131), intention-to-quit (OR=1.313; 95% CI=1.220-1.414), and intention-to-quit conditional on any quit attempts (OR=1.125; 95% CI=1.021-1.239) and negatively associated with successful cessation (OR=0.613; 95% CI=0.555-0.676). Similar patters emerge for dental visits, although the results vary in significance.
Conclusions. While regular healthcare visits are positively associated with quit attempts and intention-to-quit, the impact of healthcare visits on successful cessation appears more nuanced.
Learning Areas:
Public health or related public policyLearning Objectives:
Evaluate the role of medical and dental visits in shaping smoking cessation behaviors.
Investigate the gap between the desire to quit smoking and successful cessation.
Identify potential factors that might help bridge the gap between the desire to quit smoking and successful cessation.
Keyword(s): Tobacco Control, Tobacco Use
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have a PhD I in health policy and management from the UNC-Chapel Hill with a focus in health economics. I touch on a number of tobacco control-related issues in the courses I teach at University of San Francisco. My recent research has been focused in the field of tobacco control. More specifically, my colleagues and I have been investigating the role of economic factors, such as price, in shaping smoking cessation behaviors and outcomes.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.