Physician and other health-care professional counseling of smokers to quit--United States, 1991.

Physicians and other health-care professionals play a lead role in the prevention of tobacco smoking in the United States. In particular, health-care professionals can assist patients to stop smoking by counseling them about quitting. To monitor progress toward the national health objectives for the year 2000 on tobacco use, data from CDC's 1991 National Health Interview Survey-Health Promotion and Disease Prevention (NHIS-HPDP) supplement were used to estimate the prevalence of outpatient physician and other health-care professional counseling of smokers to quit. This report summarizes the results of that survey.