Most tobacco treatment efforts target healthcare settings, because about 75% of smokers in the United States visit a primary care provider annually. Yet, 25% of patients may be missed by such targeting.

To describe patients who smoke but infrequently visit primary care – their characteristics, rates of successful telephone contact, and acceptance of tobacco treatment.

Tobacco Cessation Outreach Specialists ‘cold-called’ those without a primary care visit in the past year, offering tobacco dependence treatment. Age, sex, insurance status, race, ethnicity, electronic health record (EHR) patient-portal status and outreach outcomes were reported.

Of 3,407 patients identified as smokers in a health system registry, 565 (16.6%) had not seen any primary care provider in the past year. Among 271 of those called, 143 (53%) were successfully reached and 33 (23%) set a quit date. Those without visits tended to be younger, male, some-day versus every-day smokers (42 vs. 44 years, P = 0.004; 48% vs. 40% female, P = 0.0002, and 21% vs. 27% some-day, P = 0.003), and less active on the EHR patient portal (33% vs. 40%, P = 0.001).

A substantial proportion of patients who smoke are missed by traditional tobacco treatment interventions that require a primary care visit, yet many are receptive to quit smoking treatment offers.

Walk or Run to Quit was a national program targeting smoking cessation through group-based running clinics. Increasing physical activity may facilitate smoking cessation as well as lead to additional health benefits beyond cessation.

To evaluate the impact of Walk or Run to Quit over 3 years.

Adult male and female participants (N = 745) looking to quit smoking took part in 156 running-based cessation clinics in 79 locations across Canada. Using a pre-post design, participants completed questionnaires assessing physical activity, running frequency and smoking at the beginning and end of the 10-week program and at 6-months follow-up. Carbon monoxide testing pre- and post- provided an objective indicator of smoking status and coach logs assessed implementation.

55.0% of program completers achieved 7-day point prevalence (intent-to-treat = 22.1%) and carbon monoxide significantly decreased from weeks 1 to 10 (P < 0.001). There was an increase in physical activity and running from baseline to end-of-program (P's<0.001). At 6-month follow-up, 28.9% of participants contacted self-reported prolonged 6-month abstinence (intent-to-treat = 11.4%) and 35.6% were still running regularly.

Although attrition was a concern, Walk or Run to Quit demonstrated potential as a scalable behaviour change intervention that targets both cessation and physical activity.

Perceived stigma may be an unintended consequence of tobacco denormalization policies among remaining smokers. Little is known about the role of perceived stigmatization in cessation behaviours.

To test if perceived public smoker stigma is associated with recent attempts to cease smoking and future cessation plans among adult daily smokers.

Using merged data from the biennial national survey Norwegian Monitor 2011 and 2013 (N daily smokers = 1,029), we performed multinomial and ordinal regression analyses to study the impact of perceived public stigma (measured as social devaluation and personal devaluation) on recent quit attempts, short-term intention to quit and long-term intention to quit, controlling for confounders. One additional analysis was performed to investigate the relationship between stigma and intention to quit on quit attempts.

A significant association between perceived social devaluation and recent quit attempts was found (OR 1.76). Perceived stigma was not associated with future quit plans. Personal devaluation was not associated with any cessation outcome. The role of perceived social devaluation on quit attempts was mainly found among smokers with intentions to quit.

These findings indicate that stigma measured as social devaluation of smokers is associated with recent quit attempts, but not with future quit plans.

During pregnancy, the imperative to stop smoking becomes urgent due to health risks for mother and baby.

Explore responses to a smoking-related, pregnancy-focused Risk Behaviour Diagnosis (RBD) Scale over time with Aboriginal1 pregnant women.

Six Aboriginal Medical Services in three states recruited 22 eligible women: ⩽28 weeks' gestation, ⩾16 years old, smoked tobacco, pregnant with an Aboriginal baby. Surveys were completed at baseline (n = 22), 4-weeks (n = 16) and 12-weeks (n = 17). RBD Scale outcome measures included: perceived threat (susceptibility and severity), perceived efficacy (response and self-efficacy), fear control (avoidance), danger control (intentions to quit) and protection responses (protecting babies).

At baseline, the total mean threat scores at 4.2 (95% CI: 3.9–4.4) were higher than total mean efficacy scores at 3.9 (95% CI: 3.6–4.1). Over time there was a non-significant reduction in total mean threat and efficacy; fear control increased; danger control and protection responses remained stable. Reduction of threat and efficacy perceptions, with raised fear control responses, may indicate a blunting effect (a coping style which involves avoidance of risks).

In 22 Aboriginal pregnant women, risk perception changed over time. A larger study is warranted to understand how Aboriginal women perceive smoking risks as the pregnancy progresses so that health messages are delivered accordingly.

Research shows the mass distribution of free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is a high-impact, population-level strategy for smoking cessation; but underrepresentation of younger, and/or lighter, smokers challenges generalisability of findings to young adult smokers.

This naturalistic study examined how and with what effect young adult smokers used free nicotine patches provided through a mass mailout programme.

In total, 5,025 eligible 18–29 year-old smokers who accessed an online ordering platform received self-help materials and an 8-week course of patches matched to their consumption level (<10 cigarettes per day (cpd); ≥10 cpd). No other behavioural support occurred. Whether participants used patches correctly and achieved 30-day continuous abstinence at 6-month follow-up were assessed.

Among 694 participants with complete data: 89% used some patches; 8% used the patches correctly for 8 weeks; 31.0% (95% confidence interval (CI) = 27.6, 34.7) achieved abstinence. Adjusted logistic regression analysis showed the highest odds of abstinence was associated with the correct use of patches (odds ratio = 2.8, 95% CI = 1.5, 5.1).

Mass distribution of free patches may be an effective public health measure for supporting younger, lighter smokers to attempt cessation, reduce consumption, or achieve abstinence. Emphasising why and how to use NRT for the entire treatment course may enhance outcomes.

Due to the burden of tobacco-related illnesses among hospital inpatients, an evidence-based smoking cessation brief intervention tool was developed for clinicians working in hospitals in Queensland, Australia. The tool, called the Smoking Cessation Clinical Pathway (SCCP), is used by clinicians to support inpatient smoking cessation and manage nicotine withdrawal in hospital.

To investigate the impact of completed SCCP on nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) prescribing and use, and to explore clinician involvement in smoking cessation interventions.

A retrospective review was conducted to examine data regarding SCCP responses and NRT offering, prescribing and use. The statistical significance of the results was assessed using chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests.

Patients with a completed SCCP were more likely to be offered NRT (P < 0.0001). NRT prescribing on admission and discharge was higher in patients with a completed SCCP (P = 0.001 and P = 0.027). Intention to quit had no effect on whether NRT was offered (P = 0.276) and NRT acceptance was higher for patients that intended to quit smoking (P < 0.0001).

The SCCP prompted clinicians to offer NRT to patients, leading to increased NRT prescribing and use. These findings demonstrate the utility of the SCCP to assist clinicians to promote smoking cessation among hospital inpatients.

There is growing recognition of the role of the mCessation service (MCS) in promoting tobacco cessation in India.

To examine the potential for expanding the utilization of the MCS for tobacco cessation in India after assessing the dimensions related to literacy, mobile phone access, intention to quit, and advice to quit from the second round of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey.

A cross-sectional analysis of the data collected during the second round of the nationally-representative Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) (2016–17) was conducted.

Current tobacco smokers, smokeless tobacco, and dual users compromised 10.7%, 21.4%, and 3.4% of the survey participants, respectively. Quit attempts were reported by 36.3% of the existing tobacco smokers, of whom nearly 72% tried to quit without any assistance, while only 0.3% used the MCS. However, the potential expansion of the MCS was likely among 11.2% tobacco users with an existing intention to quit, being literate, Hindi-speakers and having cell-phone access.

The utilization of the MCS can be considerably expanded among tobacco users in India by enabling multilingual usage and incorporation as standard care practice to allow the opportunistic promotion of tobacco cessation by healthcare providers at their health clinics.