Associations of demographic and tobacco use characteristics with young adults' self-reported clinical encounters: Implications for cessation efforts.

Introduction: Accelerating smoking cessation, particularly among young adults, is a national priority for decreasing tobacco-related disease. Healthcare providers play a critical role in delivering tobacco treatment interventions to this population. This study examined associations of demographic and tobacco use characteristics with young adults' self-reported past-year clinical encounters to identify opportunities to facilitate cessation.
Methods: We conducted cross-sectional, secondary analyses on a sample of 831 young adults aged 18-34 participating in the first wave of the National Young Adult Health Survey (NYAHS 2018-2019). Demographic and tobacco use characteristics were participants' sex, age, race, current cigarette use, and current other tobacco use. Clinical encounter outcomes were past-year self-report of (1) seeing a clinician, (2) being asked about tobacco use, and among those currently smoking, (3) being advised to quit smoking.
Results: After adjustment for covariates, women (vs. men) had 2.16 times greater odds of reporting seeing a clinician, while Non-White (vs. White) young adults and those currently (vs. never) smoking had 69% and 47% lower odds. Women and those currently smoking had 2.98 and 2.66 times greater odds, respectively, of being asked about tobacco use. Among those who currently smoked, being not confident (vs. confident) about quitting smoking was associated with 69% lower odds of being advised to quit; those who reported moderate (vs. low) nicotine dependence had 3.11 times higher odds of being advised to quit.
Conclusions: Sex, racial, and smoking status differences in young adults' clinical encounter outcomes suggest multiple opportunities for future smoking prevention and cessation intervention efforts.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(© 2024 The Authors.)