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Smoking cessation in general practice

Available evidence from RCTs shows that GPs' counselling can be effective in reducing smoking prevalence and that some specific features of the intervention (for example the offer of follow-up visits) may enhance its effectiveness. The impact of such preventive activity, however, is dependent not only on intervention characteristics, but also on factors related to the recipients (smokers) and the providers (physicians). Paper 1 explores the role of pre-treatment factors in predicting quitting following GPs' counselling among 861 smokers enrolled in the Turin smoking cessation trial. Social support and smoke free environment reinforce the impact of GPs' counselling, which is less effective for more addicted smokers and for women. Counselling might be more effective, if GPs would take advantage of information on individuals' experience of behavioral change to tailor their message. Paper 2 compares a group of smokers (N = 965), who were invited to participate in the Turin smoking 1 cessation trial, to a matched sample of smokers (N = 277), listed in the files of 42 GPs collaborating in the trial. The patients in the second set were potentially eligible for recruitment, but were not invited to participate. Estimates of the effect of individual characteristics on patient recruitment indicate that GPs focused their efforts on heavier and diseased smokers. As this tendency may dilute the impact of their anti-smoking action, more effective educational strategies should be implemented when planning preventive interventions.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.22803
Date January 1994
CreatorsSenore, Carlo
ContributorsBattista, Renaldo N. (advisor)
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Science (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001441125, proquestno: MM05627, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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