Annals of family medicine
-
Annals of family medicine · Jan 2008
Randomized Controlled TrialEffect on cessation counseling of documenting smoking status as a routine vital sign: an ACORN study.
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. ⋯ The vital sign intervention promotes tobacco counseling at primary care practices through a modest increase in simple advice to quit. When implemented as a stand-alone intervention, it does not appear to increase intensive counseling.