Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable mortality in the world. Article 14 of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) states that countries should promote cessation of tobacco use and adequate treatment for tobacco dependence. Health-care providers asking all patients about their tobacco use and advising tobacco users to quit are evidence-based strategies that increase tobacco abstinence. This report examines the proportion of tobacco smokers in 17 countries responding to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) who saw a health-care provider in the past year and who reported that a health-care provider asked them about smoking and advised them to quit. Respondents were tobacco smokers aged ≥15 years surveyed during 2008-2011 in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Vietnam. The proportion of smokers who had visited a health-care provider during the previous 12 months ranged from 21.6% in Egypt to 62.3% in Poland. Among these, the proportion reporting that a health-care provider asked if they smoked ranged from 34.9% in Vietnam to 82.1% in Romania. Among those screened for tobacco use, those who reported their health-care providers advised them to quit ranged from 17.3% in Mexico to 67.3% in Romania. In most countries, persons aged ≥45 years were more likely to report being screened and advised to quit than were persons aged ≤24 years. Health-care providers should identify smokers and provide advice and assistance in quitting at each visit as an adjunct to effective community interventions (e.g., increased price of tobacco products; smoke-free policies, mass media campaigns, and tobacco quitlines).

Antismoking mass media campaigns can help reduce the prevalence of smoking by discouraging young persons from initiating smoking and by encouraging current smokers to quit. Smoking cessation is a multistage process; intention to quit smoking precedes quit attempts. To assess whether awareness of anti-cigarette smoking information in four mass media channels (television, radio, billboards, and newspapers or magazines) was significantly associated with a current cigarette smoker's intention to quit, CDC analyzed data from 17 countries that participated in the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS). Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between awareness of antismoking messages and intent to quit smoking; odds ratios were adjusted to control for demographic factors, awareness of warning labels on cigarette packages, and awareness of tobacco advertisements. In nine of 17 countries, intent to quit was significantly associated with awareness of antismoking messages in a single media channel versus no awareness, with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.3 to 1.9. In 14 countries, intent to quit was significantly associated with awareness of messages in multiple channels versus no awareness, with adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.5 to 3.2. Antismoking information in mass media channels can help reduce tobacco consumption by encouraging smokers to contemplate quitting and might be more effective when presented in multiple channels.