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.