PHYSICIAN COUNSELING FOR SMOKING CESSATION - IS THE GLASS HALF EMPTY

Background. Professional groups urge physicians to aggressively counse l their patients who smoke, but research evaluating the effectiveness of physician counseling has produced mixed results. Methods. Four hund red ten smokers identified in a previous study were contacted 1 year l ater to determine whether they had quit smoking. In both studies, smok ers were asked whether their physicians had counseled them in any of s ix specific ways leg, advising the patient of personal health risks an d the need to stop smoking, or discussing cessation methods). Results. Seventy-nine percent of patients reported that their physician counse led them either at the initial visit or at some time during the follow ing year; 42% reported having tried to quit at least once during the y ear, but only 5.9% were nonsmokers at 1-year follow-up. Physician coun seling had no effect on the rate of successful attempts to quit. Patie nts with serious health problems were more likely to be counseled and to attempt to quit (P<.02). Non-Hispanic white patients were more like ly to be counseled but less likely to attempt to quit (P<.01). Conclus ions. Counseling by physicians appears to motivate some patients to at tempt to quit, but this study did not show significant improvement in actual quit rates in patients who were counseled by a physician.