Understanding oral health promotion needs and opportunities of tobacco quitline callers.

OBJECTIVE

Improving oral health and oral health care are important public health goals. Tobacco users and smokers are at particularly high risk for oral disease and warrant targeted intervention efforts. We assessed the need for and acceptability of targeting tobacco quitline callers for an oral health promotion intervention.

METHODS

We surveyed 816 Washington State Quitline callers to assess their oral health, relevant self-care behaviors, and interest in oral health promotion intervention.

RESULTS

Most respondents were female, cigarette smokers, of low socioeconomic status, with no dental insurance. Of the respondents, 79.3% (n=647) had some or all of their natural teeth (e.g., dentate); however, most of these respondents failed to meet recommendations for daily oral hygiene (brushing and flossing) (83.9%, n=543) and had no dental visits in the past year (52.6%, n=340). Similar findings were observed among respondents with no insurance. Many respondents were interested in learning more about how to improve their oral health (57.4%, n=468), willing to speak with a quitline coach about improving their oral health (48.2%, n=393), and open to receiving additional oral health information by mail (62.7%, n=512) or the Internet (50.0%, n=408). People who were receptive to learning how to improve their oral health were significantly more likely to be nonwhite, have a low income, have no dental insurance, and not have visited a dentist in the past year.

CONCLUSION

There is a need and an opportunity to target quitline callers for oral health promotion services, as those most in need of these services were open to receiving them.