ArticleBMJ open2014
Smoker, ex-smoker or non-smoker? The validity of routinely recorded smoking status in UK primary care: a cross-sectional study.
Article in BMJ open, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02681848 (What Are the Effects of Varenicline Compared With Nicotine Replacement Therapy on Long Term Smoking Cessation and Clinically Important Outcomes?), which is not on this map. Cited by 53 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
What Are the Effects of Varenicline Compared With Nicotine Replacement Therapy on Long Term Smoking Cessation and Clinically Important Outcomes?
Who cites it
53 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Smoking, alcohol consumption, and psoriasis risk: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of observational studies.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- The REporting of studies Conducted using Observational Routinely-collected health Data (RECORD) statement.PLoS medicine · 2015Guideline
- Machine Learning Approaches to Identify Influential Factors of the Comorbid Psychiatric Symptoms and Hypertension Among Rural Adults in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Genetic and sociodemographic factors associated with trajectories of physical and mental health multimorbidity in a South Asian cohort in the UK: A multistate modelling analysis.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Estimating 5-year absolute risk of cardiovascular disease using routinely collected electronic medical records from Australian general practices.Heart (British Cardiac Society) · 2026Article
- Implementation of the NHS England Lung Cancer Screening Programme over 5 years.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Prediagnostic primary care consultations and imaging in emergency-diagnosed versus referred patients with lung cancer: a population-based linked data study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026Article
- Article
- Management of People with Asthma in Primary Care by Smoking Status: A Cohort Study.Journal of asthma and allergy · 2026Article
- Characterization of infertile couples and outcomes of their first in vitro fertilization cycle at public fertility centers in Northern and Central Portugal: a five-year cohort study.JBRA assisted reproduction · 2025Observational
- Maternal Anaemia and Congenital Heart Disease in Offspring: A Case-Control Study Using Linked Electronic Health Records in the United Kingdom.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2025Article
- Socioeconomic Variation in Tobacco Smoking Among the Adult Population in Ireland.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Article
- Observational
- Development and validation of a risk prediction tool for the diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease in patients presenting in primary care with abdominal symptoms.Journal of Crohn's & colitis · 2025Article
- Prevalence of loneliness and associated factors among older adults at Yilmana Densa District, West Gojjam Zone Amhara region, Ethiopia.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2025Article
- Smoking data quality of primary care practices in comparison with smoking data from the New Zealand Māori and Pacific abdominal aortic aneurysm screening programme: an observational study.BMC public health · 2024Observational
- Associations between prior healthcare use, time to diagnosis, and clinical outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease: a nationally representative population-based cohort study.BMJ open gastroenterology · 2024Article
- Risk of death due to COVID-19 among current and former smokers in the Netherlands: a population-based quasi-cohort study.International journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- The association between menstrual cycle characteristics and cardiometabolic outcomes in later life: a retrospective matched cohort study of 704,743 women from the UK.BMC medicine · 2023Article
- Tobacco Smoking and Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Disease Severity Among Adults in an Integrated Healthcare System in California.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate how smoking status is recorded in UK primary care; to evaluate whether appropriate multiple imputation (MI) of smoking status yields results consistent with health surveys.
settingUK primary care and a population survey conducted in the community.
participantsWe identified 354 204 patients aged 16 or over in The Health Improvement Network (THIN) primary care database registered with their general practice 2008-2009 and 15 102 individuals aged 16 or over in the Health Survey for England (HSE). OUTCOME MEASURES: Age-standardised and age-specific proportions of smokers, ex-smokers and non-smokers in THIN and the HSE before and after MI. Using information on time since quitting in the HSE, we estimated when ex-smokers are typically recorded as non-smokers in primary care records.
resultsIn THIN, smoking status was recorded for 84% of patients within 1 year of registration. Of these, 28% were smokers (21% in the HSE). After MI of missing smoking data, the proportion of smokers was 25% (missing at random) and 20% (missing not at random). With increasing age, more were identified as ex-smokers in the HSE than THIN. It appears that those who quit before age 30 were less likely to be recorded as an ex-smoker in primary care than people who quit later.
conclusionsSmoking status was relatively well recorded in primary care. Misclassification of ex-smokers as non-smokers is likely to occur in those quitting smoking at an early age and/or a long time ago. Those with no smoking status information are more likely to be ex-smokers or non-smokers than smokers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.