Tobacco Use Smoking Status

Item Length: 1

Tobacco Use Smoking Status, effective 01/01/2022, captures the patient's past or current use of tobacco (cigarette, cigar, and/or pipe).

Coding Instructions

1. Record the past or current use of tobacco

a. Tobacco use includes cigarette, cigar, and/or pipe

2. Do not record the patient’s past or current use of marijuana, chewing tobacco, e-cigarettes, or vaping devices

3. Assign code 1 when

a. The patient currently smokes

b. The record only states “current tobacco use”

c. There is evidence in the medical record that the patient quit smoking within 30 days prior to diagnosis. The 30 days prior information is intended to differentiate patients who may have quit recently due to symptoms that led to a cancer diagnosis.

4. Assign code 2 when the medical record indicates

a. “Former smoker”

b. “Prior tobacco use”

c. Patient has smoked tobacco in the past but does not smoke now. Patient must have quit 31 or more days prior to cancer diagnosis to be coded as ‘former smoker.’

5. Assign code 3 when

a. The patient is noted to have smoked, but the current smoking status is not known

b. It is known that the patient “recently” stopped smoking but it is not known how long ago the patient stopped smoking

c. It cannot be determined whether the patient currently smokes or formerly smoked

Example: The medical record only indicates “Yes” for smoking without further information.

6. Assign code 9 rather than code 0 when

a. The medical record only indicates “No” for tobacco use

b. Smoking status is not stated or provided

c. The method (cigarette, pipe, cigar) used cannot be verified in the chart

d. The record has no information about smoking status or history (e.g., pathology report only)

e. It is documented that the patient uses or used smokeless or chewing tobacco or e- cigarettes

or vapes, but tobacco use is not mentioned

7. Use text fields to explain the code assignment

Tobacco smoking history can be obtained from sections such as the Nursing Interview Guide, Flow Chart, Vital Stats, or Nursing Assessment section, or other available sources from the patient’s hospital medical record or physician office record. The information recorded in this data item is not comparable to the information previously collected under the CDC Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) and Patient Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) projects