title: Advising parents to stop smoking: pediatricians' and parents' attitudes.
abstract: Pediatricians are in a unique position to address the issues of smoking cessation with parents. Vermont pediatricians and parents of their patients were surveyed to assess attitudes about giving and receiving smoking cessation advice. A questionnaire was mailed to all pediatricians in Vermont, and 72 valid responses were received, for a response rate of 91%. Forty percent of pediatricians routinely took a smoking history from parents and 11% recorded this information in the child's chart. Most pediatricians (94%) reported advising at least 60% of smoking parents to quit, and they spent an average of 4.4 minutes doing this. Barriers to giving advice were lack of time (42%), feeling that parents did not expect advice (25%), and feeling ill at ease giving the advice (25%). Only 8.5% of pediatricians had received training in how to give smoking cessation advice, but 87% were willing to learn methods to give advice briefly. Six hundred seventy-six parents from randomly selected pediatric practices were interviewed. The average parental age was 32, and 84% were women; 49% had never smoked, 30% were former smokers, and 21% were current smokers. Current smokers were less likely to agree with statements about the adverse effects of passive smoke on children. Most parents (56%) felt that pediatricians should give quit-smoking advice to parents, and 52% of smoking parents reported that they would welcome advice. Only 30% of current smokers said advice would bother them somewhat, and 15% had more negative reactions. Parents and pediatricians agreed on the best opportunities to give quit-smoking advice.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Vermont, Burlington.
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Frankowski
authors.forename: S O
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Weaver
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Secker-Walker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards*; D010819:Physician's Role; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects; D014707:Vermont
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution