RELATION BETWEEN SMOKING STATUS OF PHYSICIANS AND THEIR ENTHUSIASM TOOFFER SMOKING CESSATION ADVICE

Are nonsmoking physicians more likely to give smoking cessation advice to their patients? To determine this, we sent a questionnaire individ ually to physicians in Tokyo, The average age of the 323 respondents w as 59.8+/-12.9 (mean+/-SD); 84.8% of them were male and 21.1% were smo kers, Among the respondents, 88.8% asked their patients about their sm oking status, 79.9% advised smoking patients to stop, and 93.5% believ ed smoking cessation interventions to be necessary, Nonsmoking physici ans were more likely to advise patients to stop smoking (85.6%) than s moking physicians (70.1%); the smoking physicians who themselves wishe d to reduce cigarette consumption or stop smoking were more likely to do so (85.0%) than those who did not wish to reduce or stop (43.5%), M oreover, more nonsmoking physicians seriously felt that smoking cessat ion interventions are necessary (31.2%) than did smoking physicians (6 .5%), In conclusion, the smoking status and attitude towards smoking o f physicians influences their enthusiasm to give advice to their patie nts against smoking.