An analysis of the recording of tobacco use among inpatients in Irish hospitals.

Smoking is the largest avoidable cause of premature mortality in the world. Hospital admission is an opportunity to identify and help smokers quit. This study aimed to determine the level of recording of tobacco use (current and past) in Irish hospitals. Information on inpatient discharges with a tobacco use diagnosis was extracted from HIPE. In 2011, a quarter (n=84,679) of discharges had a recording of tobacco use, which were more common among males (29% (n=50,161) male v. 20% (n=30,162) female), among medical patients (29% (n=54,375) medical v. 20% (n=30,162) other) and was highest among those aged 55-59 years (30.6%; n=7,885). SLÁN 2007 reported that 48% of adults had smoked at some point in their lives. This study would suggest an under-reporting of tobacco use among hospital inpatients. Efforts should be made to record smoking status at hospital admission, and to improve the quality of the HIPE coding of tobacco use