Tobacco Use Screening and Cessation Intervention (TSC-E)

The percentage of persons 12 years of age and older who were screened for commercial tobacco product use at least once during the measurement period, and who received tobacco cessation intervention if identified as a tobacco user. Two rates are reported:  

  1. Tobacco Use Screening. The percentage of persons who were screened for tobacco use.
  2. Cessation Intervention. The percentage of persons who were identified as a tobacco user and who received tobacco cessation intervention.

Why It Matters

Commercial tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the United States. Tobacco use harms nearly every organ of the body and causes cancer, heart diseases, stroke, lung disease, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic conditions 1. Cigarette smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths, and smokers are twice as likely to die from cancer than nonsmokers 2. Regardless of age or how long someone has been smoking, smoking cessation reduces the risk of negative health effects, adding as much as 10 years to one’s life expectancy 1 3.

In 2020, an estimated 30.8 million (12.5%) of U.S. adults currently smoked cigarettes, defined as smoking ≥ 100 cigarettes during a lifetime and now smoking cigarettes either every day or some days 4. More than 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease. Most tobacco use begins during youth and young adulthood, with nearly one in nine (11.3%) adolescents reporting current use of tobacco products 5. While nearly 70% of current U.S. adult smokers stated they wanted to quit and over half attempted to quit in the past year, only about 8% were successful in quitting for 6-12 months 6 7.

Cigarette smoking costs more than $240 billion in healthcare spending, accounting for nearly $185 billion in lost productivity from smoking-related illness and health conditions and $180 billion dollars in lost productivity from smoking-related death 8. In addition to this, cigarette smoking was linked to an $891 billion cumulative economic loss in 2020 9.

All patients should be asked about their tobacco use, whether risk factors for use are present, and encouraged to stop using tobacco 10. Effective tobacco smoking cessation interventions include behavioral counseling and pharmacotherapy, either individually or in combination, and are successful in helping tobacco users quit. The U.S. Preventive Service Task Force (USPSTF) recommends clinicians to ask all adults about tobacco use, advise them to stop using tobacco, and provide behavioral interventions and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved pharmacotherapy for cessation to nonpregnant adults who use tobacco.

The Tobacco Use Screening and Cessation Intervention (TSC-E) measure was based on the USPSTF tobacco screening guidelines and evidence-based literature from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and American Academy of Pediatrics concerning interventions and adolescence tobacco use, respectively.

Historical Results – National Averages

Performance results for this measure are currently unavailable.

References

  1. Lushniak, Boris D., Jonathan M. Samet, Terry F. Pechacek, Leslie A. Norman, and Peter A. Taylor. “The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General.” Accessed January 14, 2025. https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/21569
  2. Islami, Farhad et al. 2022. “Person‐years of Life Lost and Lost Earnings from Cigarette Smoking‐attributable Cancer Deaths, United States, 2019.” International Journal of Cancer 151(12):2095–2106. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34217
  3. General, Office of the Surgeon. 2020. “Smoking Cessation: A Report of the Surgeon General – Key Findings.” January 21, 2020. https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/reports-and-publications/tobacco/2020-cessation-sgr-factsheet-key-findings/index.html
  4. CDC Tobacco Free. 2024. “Burden of Tobacco Use in the U.S.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, October 8, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/campaign/tips/resources/data/cigarette-smoking-in-united-states.html
  5. Park-Lee, Eunice. 2022. “Tobacco Product Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2022.” MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 71. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7145a1
  6. Babb, Stephen. 2017. “Quitting Smoking Among Adults — United States, 2000–2015.” MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 65. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6552a1
  7. Creamer, MeLisa R. 2019. “Tobacco Product Use and Cessation Indicators Among Adults — United States, 2018.” MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 68. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6845a2
  8. Shrestha, Sundar S., Ramesh Ghimire, Xu Wang, Katrina F. Trivers, David M. Homa, and Brian S. Armour. 2022. “Cost of Cigarette Smoking‒Attributable Productivity Losses, U.S., 2018.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine 63(4):478–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2022.04.032
  9. Nargis, Nigar, A K M Ghulam Hussain, Samuel Asare, Zheng Xue, Anuja Majmundar, Priti Bandi, Farhad Islami, K Robin Yabroff, and Ahmedin Jemal. 2022. “Economic Loss Attributable to Cigarette Smoking in the USA: An Economic Modelling Study.” The Lancet Public Health 7(10):e834–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00202-X
  10. Krist, Alex, Davidson, Karina W., Carol M. Mangione, Michael J. Barry, Michael Cabana, Aaron B. Caughey, et al. 2021. “Interventions for Tobacco Smoking Cessation in Adults, Including Pregnant Persons: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement.” JAMA 325(3):265. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.25019

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