title: Understanding oral health promotion needs and opportunities of tobacco quitline callers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Improving oral health and oral health care are important public health goals. Tobacco users and smokers are at particularly high risk for oral disease and warrant targeted intervention efforts. We assessed the need for and acceptability of targeting tobacco quitline callers for an oral health promotion intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  We surveyed 816 Washington State Quitline callers to assess their oral health, relevant self-care behaviors, and interest in oral health promotion intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most respondents were female, cigarette smokers, of low socioeconomic status, with no dental insurance. Of the respondents, 79.3% (n=647) had some or all of their natural teeth (e.g., dentate); however, most of these respondents failed to meet recommendations for daily oral hygiene (brushing and flossing) (83.9%, n=543) and had no dental visits in the past year (52.6%, n=340). Similar findings were observed among respondents with no insurance. Many respondents were interested in learning more about how to improve their oral health (57.4%, n=468), willing to speak with a quitline coach about improving their oral health (48.2%, n=393), and open to receiving additional oral health information by mail (62.7%, n=512) or the Internet (50.0%, n=408). People who were receptive to learning how to improve their oral health were significantly more likely to be nonwhite, have a low income, have no dental insurance, and not have visited a dentist in the past year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a need and an opportunity to target quitline callers for oral health promotion services, as those most in need of these services were open to receiving them.
authors: Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, WA 98101, USA. mcclure.j@ghc.org
authors: Jennifer B
authors: JB
authors: McClure
authors: Karin R
authors: KR
authors: Riggs
authors: Jackie
authors: J
authors: St John
authors: Barbara
authors: B
authors: Cerutti
authors: Susan
authors: S
authors: Zbikowski
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003729:Dental Care / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006306:Health Surveys; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D007347:Insurance, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009909:Oral Health / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014861:Washington