[Smoking interventions in primary health care: smoking profile of women and beliefs and attitudes of local health care teams].
BACKGROUND
Chile has one of the highest prevalence rate of smoking in the world. Brief counseling interventions for smoking cessation at the primary health care level are effective. Compliance with counseling intervention is strongly associated with beliefs and attitudes of the primary health care team that deliver it. The effectiveness of these interventions improve if they are applied to smoking populations with higher motivation of change and high self-efficacy for quitting.


OBJECTIVE
To study the smoking profile of a group of smoking women in Santiago and to identify beliefs and attitudes of the primary health care team members to implement smoking cessation interventions.


METHODS
A cross-sectional design that included 306 women smokers attending two primary health care clinics in Santiago. Perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of 34 primary care team members from three clinics in Santiago were explored using a qualitative methodology.


RESULTS
The study identified a subgroup of 18% of women highly motivated to quit (decisional stage of change) and a 58% with a high self-efficacy. Beliefs and attitudes of staff at the clinics were characterized by invisibility, ambivalence and fatalism regarding the effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions.


CONCLUSIONS
There is a subgroup of smoking women with a high probability of quitting if they receive an appropriate counseling. Developing a systematic approach for smoking cessation intervention at the primary care setting in Chile should consider the invisibility, ambivalence and fatalism of primary health care team members towards this topic.
Puschel
Klaus
K
Cancer Prevention Research Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA. kpuschel@med.puc.cl
Thompson
Beti
B
Coronado
Gloria
G
Rivera
Solange
S
Díaz
Daniel
D
González
Loreto
L
Valencia
Genny
G
Iñiguez
Sibila
S
Montero
Joaquín
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D011320:Primary Health Care; D036301:Qualitative Research; D020377:Self Efficacy; D016540:Smoking Cessation