Reach of Smokers Who Do Not Intend to Quit in General Medical Practices

Evidence revealed that the majority of smokers do not intend to quit, and reach of this majority and adoption of brief smoking cessation intervention (BSCI) in primary medical care is a challenge. We sought to address recruitment of patients for BSCI with focus on those who did not intend to stop smoking in the next six months. General practices were encouraged to address patients and offer BSCI in daily routine care. A personal brief advice intervention sample of patients (n=525) and a tailored letters intervention sample (n=1284) in routine care were analyzed in relation to a reference sample (n=1610) that had been systematically recruited by a study nurse. Tailored letters were generated by a full  automated computer-expert system. We found that in the routine care samples higher proportions of smokers who already considered smoking cessation within the next six months or planned to stop smoking were among those who had been recruited in comparison to the reference sample (brief advice, relative risk ratio: 2.6, 95 % confidence interval: 1.8-3.9; tailored letters, relative risk ratio: 1.9, 1.5-2.3). Among the brief advice intervention sample, a higher proportion of patients who considered to quit smoking within the next six months tended to be recruited than in the tailored letters condition. We conclude that systematic recruitment may add to get those into BSCI who are at particular need. Tailored letters intervention may more suit the need to provide BSCI to all smokers than general practitioner brief advice.