Seeing new opportunities to help smokers quit: A UK national survey of optometrist-delivered smoking cessation behavioral support interventions

Abstract

Background: Smoking is a risk factor for various eye conditions. Brief smoking cessation interventions have demonstrated effectiveness when delivered by a range of health care professionals. Optometrists are well placed in the community to advise otherwise healthy smokers to quit, yet remain relatively neglected in smoking cessation research and policy. In a national survey, this study investigated self-reported practices of UK optometrists for delivering brief tobacco smoking cessation interventions to patients. Methods: A randomly selected sample of 1200 optometrists out of the 9000 optometrists registered on the UK College of Optometrists database were invited to complete a 40-item, web-b..