Quitting Smoking Among Adults—United States, 2001–2010

November 11, 2011 / Vol. 60 / No. 44

MMWR Introduction

CDC analyzed 2010 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data to describe U.S. adult smokers' interest in quitting, quit attempts in the past year, successful recent smoking cessation, and use of evidence-based cessation treatments and services by demographic characteristics. This report describes the results of that analysis, which found that 68.8% of current smokers want to completely stop smoking, 52.4% of smokers had made a quit attempt in the past year, and 6.2% of smokers had successfully quit within the past year. Further findings were that 48.3% of smokers who saw a health care professional in the past year recalled getting advice to quit and 31.7% of smokers used counseling and/or FDA-approved medications when they tried to quit.

Use of effective treatments can almost double to triple rates of successful smoking cessation. Health care providers should identify tobacco users and provide them brief cessation advice at each visit; assistance (counseling and FDA-approved medications) then should be offered to those who are interested in making a quit attempt. Health care administrators, insurers, and purchasers can support these clinical interventions and increase successful cessation by providing comprehensive insurance coverage with no deductibles or co-payments for cessation treatments and implementing tobacco-free campus policies in health care settings and workplaces.