Receipt of healthcare provider’s advice for smoking cessation and quit attempts in Zambia

Abstract

Introduction Healthcare providers play a critical role in facilitating smoking cessation, however, despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of brief advise, most healthcare providers rarely advise and assist their patients in quitting smoking. Our study investigated the proportion of smokers in Zambia who receive smoking cessation advise from their healthcare providers, and estimated the prevalence and factors associated with quit attempts in Zambia. Methods This cross-sectional study included 475 adult current smokers. Quit status, behavior and psychological factors, and clinical characteristics were assessed. Logistic regression was used to obtain unadjusted (OR) and adjusted odds ratios (AOR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the association between various factors and attempt to quit. Results Of the 475 current smokers who participated in the WHO-STEPS Survey 2017, more than half were aged 18–44 years (63.8%). The majority of the smokers were men (87.2%), had rural residence (70.9%), no to less than primary education level (42.6%). Among the 475 current smokers included in the analysis, 47.6% made quit attempts and among the 387 current smokers who visited a healthcare provider in the past 12 months for any other medical reason, only 18.6% reported receiving smoking advise. In multivariable analysis, advised to quit was associated with increased odds of attempting to quit (OR=2.84; 95% CI: 1.11– 7.25). Conclusions Our findings underscore that few smokers in Zambia are advised to quit smoking during encounters with healthcare providers. The study also found that quit advise offered by healthcare providers was significantly associated with quit attempts by the smoker. There is a need to strengthen smoking cessation policies that encourage routine screening, quit advise, and treatment of smokers to reduce tobacco-related comorbidities.

Keywords

• zambia
• quit attempts
• smoking cessation
• brief advise
• healthcare providers
• sub-saharan region