Effect on cessation counseling of documenting smoking status as a routine vital sign: an ACORN study.

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 t

SUBMITTER: Rothemich SF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2203392 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature