Provider smoking cessation advice among California Asian-American smokers.

Purpose: To determine proportions of provider advice to quit smoking for Asian-American smokers and to describe factors that may affect the provision of such advice.

Design: Secondary data analysis of population-based survey.

Setting: California.

Subjects: Current smokers from the California Tobacco Use Surveys for Chinese-Americans (n = 2117, participation rate = 52%), Korean-Americans (n = 2545, participation rate = 48%), and Vietnamese-Americans (n = 2179, participation rate = 63.5%).

Measures: Sociodemographics including insurance status, smoking frequency, provider visit in past year, and provider advice to quit.

Analysis: Multivariate logistic regression models examined dependent outcomes of (1) provider visit in past year and (2) provider advice to quit.

Results: Less than a third (30.5%) of smokers in our study reported both seeing a provider (50.8%) and then receiving advice to quit (60.1%). Factors associated with provider visits included being female, being 45 years or older, having health insurance, and being Vietnamese. Among smokers who saw a provider, factors associated with provider advice to quit included having health insurance and being a daily smoker.

Conclusions: Asian-American smokers reported low proportions of provider advice to quit in the past year, largely because only half of smokers saw a provider. Providers who see such smokers may need greater awareness that several effective cessation treatments do not require health insurance, and that intermittent smokers need advice to quit.