How do residents prioritize smoking cessation for young "high-risk" women?Factors associated with addressing smoking cessation

Background. Sixty-seven percent of physicians report advising their smoking patients to quit. Primary care residents' priorities for preventive health for a young"high-risk" female are unknown. Factors related to residents ad dressing smoking also need examining. Methods. One hundred residents completed a survey about preventive health i ssues for a woman in her 20s "who leads a high-risk lifestyle." Residents i ndicated which topics they would address, and the likelihood that they woul d address each of 12 relevant preventive health topics, their outcome expec tancies that the patient would follow their advice on each topic, their con fidence that they could address the topic, and perceived barriers for addre ssing the topic. Results. Residents listed STD prevention most frequently. Drug use and smok ing cessation were second and third most frequently listed. Residents who b elieved that the patient would follow their advice were more likely to list smoking cessation than residents who had lower outcome expectancies for th at patient. Higher barriers were negatively related to addressing smoking c essation. Conclusions. When time is not a barrier, residents are likely to address sm oking cessation. Teaching residents how to incorporate this subject into th eir clinical 1 practice is needed. Raising residents' outcome expectancies may increase their likelihood of addressing smoking cessation. (C) 2001 Ame rican Health Foundation and Academic Press.