Abstract
The adverse effects of parental smoking on children are widely recognized, yet little is known about how often and how pediatricians counsel patients' parents to stop smoking. We, therefore, surveyed 80 pediatric residents from four North Carolina training programs to determine self-reported practice of parental smoking cessation counseling. The response rate was 85% (67/80).
Although 84% of the responding residents agreed that pediatricians should try to convince parents to stop smoking, residents reported infrequently counseling parents to do so. On average, residents asked 35% of new patients' parents and 26% of return patients' parents to stop smoking. In those who were counseled, counseling was brief; mean duration was 2.8 minutes. Very few residents used specific counseling techniques to help parents quit: only 8% often or always assessed motivation to quit, 5% advised the parents to set a quit date, 3% discussed obstacles to quitting, 2% gave the parent self-help written materials, and none prescribed nicotine gum or scheduled follow-up to monitor progress. A third of residents (35%) did not feel confident in their ability to counsel, half (51%) felt ill-prepared to counsel, and most (91%) felt their counseling was unsuccessful.
Despite positive attitudes about trying to convince patients' parents to stop smoking, pediatric residents seldom counsel parents and even less often use effective counseling techniques.
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Irons, T., White, S. & Kenney, R. PARENTAL SMOKING CESSATION COUNSELING BY PEDIATRIC RESIDENTS. Pediatr Res 21 (Suppl 4), 257 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198704010-00542
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198704010-00542