OBJECTIVE
To study the infrastructure of organization and provision of medical care aimed at cessation of tobacco and nicotine-containing products and its relationship with the prevalence of smoking in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
We conducted a survey about the implementation of the Order of the Ministry of Health of Russia dated February 26, 2021, No. 140n on the «Procedure for smoking cessation support» among the chief specialists in medical prevention of the regions of the Russian Federation. The results were analyzed and compared with the processed micro-data on smoking prevalence in the Russian Federation in 2022 based on Rosstat’s «On the state of public health» observations for 2022 and the data from annual forms of federal statistical observation No. 131. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, predictive models, and linear regression methods were used for correlation analysis. IBM SPSS Statistics v 29 and StatTech v 3.1.8 software was used for statistical analysis.
RESULTS
The average Russian indicator of the number of structural units providing smoking cessation support, including tobacco and nicotine cessation offices, medical prevention offices and departments, and health centers, was 0.73 per 20.000 of the assigned population. Only in 23 regions of the Russian Federation does the number of structural units meet the requirements of the MoH RF Order dated February 26, 2021, No. 140n — 1.03 to 2.36 per 20.000 population. We revealed a statistically significant inverse relationship between the number of medical prevention offices and the level of smoking prevalence among men and women of all ages (p=0.047, ρ=−0.228), men and women of 45—54 years (p=0.028, ρ=−0.252), the number of medical prevention departments and the prevalence of smoking among men of 45–54 years (p=0.048, ρ=−0.227).
CONCLUSION
Realizing the potential of medical structures providing smoking cessation support requires revising existing normative legal documents, adopting appropriate standards, and identifying funding sources.