Attitudes and behaviours in smoking cessation among general practitioners in Finland 2001.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether smoking by general practitioners (GPs) and gender influence smoking cessation advice.


METHODS
A self-administered questionnaire, originally developed by the WHO and modified according to the Finnish health care system was sent by mail to physicians who were members of the Finnish Medical Association (FMA). Participants were restricted to those who were living in Finland and were younger than 65 years. Numbers of participants was 3,057 and the response rate 69%.


RESULTS
Smoking male GPs gave less smoking cessation advice only to patients with a stomach ulcer or patients using oral contraceptive pills compared with their non-smoking colleagues. Male GPs gave less smoking cessation advice to pregnant patients or patients using contraceptive pills than female GPs. Female smoking GPs less likely advised patients who were pregnant or who were using oral contraceptive pills to stop smoking than non-smoking female GPs (p <0.001). The percentage of GPs who have never distributed smoking cessation information was lower in men (41%) than in women (45%; p-value: 0.052).


CONCLUSIONS
Minor differences in anti-smoking advice to patients between smoking and non-smoking general practitioners were found. The little involvement of GPs in health promotion activities regarding tobacco control is of concern.
Barengo
Noël C
NC
Department of Public Health and General Practice, University of Kuopio, Finland. noel.barengo@uku.fi
Sandström
H Patrick
HP
Jormanainen
Vesa J
VJ
Myllykangas
Markku T
MT
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000453:epidemiology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014944:World Health Organization