title: Smoking cessation counseling during periodic health examinations.
abstract: Periodic health examinations are an excellent opportunity to counsel smokers to quit. The impact of a specialized smoking cessation counselor on the smoking behavior of patients having periodic health examinations was studied in a general internal medicine practice. One hundred fifty-five smokers having periodic health examinations were randomly assigned to a control group who received usual physician advice or an intervention group who received usual physician advice and two counseling sessions with a smoking cessation counselor. The two groups were similar in all demographic variables, smoking-related baseline variables, and baseline levels of motivation and intention to quit smoking. The smoking status of 97% of the subjects was assessed 6 months later. In the intervention group, 46% made quit attempts and 19% quit, compared with 34% and 12%, respectively, in the control group. Intervention-group smokers made more quit attempts (mean +/- SD, 5.0 +/- 2.5 vs 1.8 +/- 0.2) and had a greater reduction in daily cigarette use (8.4 +/- 1.5 vs 3.5 +/- 1.3). Of the 74% of smokers with higher levels of motivation to quit smoking, more intervention-group smokers attempted to quit (70.8% vs 45.5%) and succeeded in quitting at the 6-month follow-up (27.1% vs 10.9%). Periodic health examinations are an excellent opportunity to counsel smokers to quit, especially those smokers with higher levels of motivation to quit smoking.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Vermont, Burlington 05401.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Bronson
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Flynn
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vacek
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Secker-Walker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000379:methods*; D011897:Random Allocation; D000074606:Smoking Prevention