Smoking-cessation advice from health-care providers--Canada, 2005

Tobacco use is the most preventable cause of premature death and disease in Canada. In 2002, an estimated 37,209 Canadians died from illnesses related to tobacco use, accounting for 16.6% of all deaths in Canada. One of the objectives of the Canadian Federal Tobacco Control Strategy (FTCS) 2001-2011 is to reduce smoking prevalence in Canada from 25% to 20%. Although evidence indicates that an effective and efficient way of providing smoking-cessation information to smokers is through contact with health-care providers, little data in Canada exist regarding smoking-cessation advice from this group. In 2005, the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS) included questions to assess self-reported provision of cessation advice by health-care providers. This report summarizes the results of that survey, which indicate that only half of persons who visited health-care providers in the preceding 12 months received smoking-cessation advice, suggesting that health-care providers need to take greater advantage of opportunities to provide such advice to smokers.