Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR&D Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

Validating the use of veterans affairs tobacco health factors for assessing change in smoking status: accuracy, availability, and approach.

Melzer AC, Pinsker EA, Clothier B, Noorbaloochi S, Burgess DJ, Danan ER, Fu SS. Validating the use of veterans affairs tobacco health factors for assessing change in smoking status: accuracy, availability, and approach. BMC medical research methodology. 2018 May 11; 18(1):39.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.
   Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions



Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Accurate smoking status is key for research purposes, but can be costly and difficult to measure. Within the Veteran''s Health Administration (VA), smoking status is recorded as part of routine care as "health factors" (HF)-fields that researchers can query through the electronic health record (EHR). Many researchers are interested in using these fields to track changes in smoking status over time, however the validity of this measure for assessing change is unknown. The primary goal of this project was to examine whether HFs can be used to accurately measure change in tobacco status over time, with secondary goals of assessing the optimum timeframe for assessment and variation in accuracy by site. METHODS: Secondary analysis of the Veterans VICTORY study, a pragmatic smoking cessation randomized controlled trial conducted from 2009 to 2011. Eligible subjects were identified via the EHR using a past 90-day HF indicating current tobacco use (for example: "CURRENT SMOKER", "CURRENTLY USES TOBACCO"). Participants were surveyed at 1 year to determine prolonged smoking abstinence. We identified HFs for tobacco status within +/-?120 days of the follow-up survey mailing date and recorded the temporally closest HF. Among subjects with both measures, we compared the two for agreement using kappa statistics and concordance. RESULTS: 1713 subjects (33%) had both follow-up survey and HF data, 1594 (31%) had only a survey response, 790 (15%) had only HF and 1026 (20%) had neither. For subjects with both measures, there was 90% concordance and moderate agreement (Kappa 0.48, 95%CI 0.41-0.55, Sensitivity 54.4, 95%CI 41.1-67.7, Specificity 94.3, 95%CI 87.5-100.0). CONCLUSIONS: We found high concordance but only moderate agreement by kappa statistics between HFs and survey data. The difference is likely accounted for by the natural history of quit attempts, in which patients cycle in and out of quit attempts. HFs appear to provide an accurate measure of population level quit behavior utilizing data collected in the course of clinical care.





Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.