Telephone-based smoking quitline can serve as a successful treatment option for Spanish-speaking patients

Researchers conducted a study examining the differences in smoking treatment between Spanish- and English-preferring primary care patients linked with evidence-based tobacco treatment using Ask-Advise-Connect (AAC). Researchers compared enrollment, engagement and smoking cessation outcomes.

Patients who received treatment in Spanish (vs. English) were twice as likely to be abstinent at six months. Receipt of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) increased abstinence for all patients.

Language was not a factor in predicting abstinence through the use of NRT. The authors assert that automated point-of-care approaches such as AAC have great potential to reach Spanish-preferring smokers, who seem to appreciate treatment by those who speak the concordant language.

The research was published in The Annals of Family Medicine.