Smoking among patients in the primary health care system in Nuuk, Greenland

Abstract

Background: Tobacco use is the largest preventable cause of death in the developed world. Registration of smoking status in the health care setting has been internationally recognized as an important step towards promoting smoking cessation. Tobacco smoking is highly prevalent in Greenland. However, no studies to date have described the use of smoking cessation interventions in Greenland.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the extent to which smoking status registration was recorded for patients in Nuuk, Greenland over a thirty-month study period. Additionally, smoking prevalence among patients within the same time frame was estimated.

Design: The study was performed as an observational cross-sectional register study based on a review of the electronic medical record for all patients in Nuuk ≥ 18 years old.

Method: Smoking status registration for all patients at Queen Ingrid Health Care Center between January 1st 2011-June 15th, 2013 was identifed using a search module in the electronic medical record. Proportion of smokers and non-smokers was determined among the registered population using the population in Nuuk as baseline. Quitting rates were calculated for patients with more than one smoking status registration.

Results: Among the population in Nuuk, 15.9% had smoking status registered during the study period. Smoking prevalence was calculated as 50.7%. During the study period, 10.6% of the study population who were smokers quit smoking.

Conclusion: The implementation of smoking status registration as an intervention to promote smoking cessation can be performed even in a small, geographically isolated population such as Greenland. While smoking status registration is used as a tool in the clinical setting in Nuuk, opportunities remain to increase the frequency of registration. Smoking prevalence among the study population was less frequent than previously reported among the general population.