Assessing the congruence between physician behavior and expert opinion in smoking cessation counseling

This study examines the degree of transfer of smoking cessation innovation from research to health care settings by comparing frequency-of-practice ratings by a national sample of family practice physicians (n = 903, response rate = 70%) and importance ratings by smoking cessation and prevention exp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Addictive behaviors 1991, Vol.16 (5), p.203-210
Main Authors: Mullen, Patricia D., Ito, Joanne R., Carbonari, Joseph P., DiClemente, Carlo C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Behavior Therapy - methods
Biological and medical sciences
Diffusion of Innovation
Humans
Inservice Training
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Patient Compliance - psychology
Patient Education as Topic - methods
Physician's Role
Physician-Patient Relations
Prevention and actions
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Smoking Cessation - methods
Smoking Cessation - psychology
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Summary:This study examines the degree of transfer of smoking cessation innovation from research to health care settings by comparing frequency-of-practice ratings by a national sample of family practice physicians (n = 903, response rate = 70%) and importance ratings by smoking cessation and prevention experts (n = 58, response rate = 84%) for 14 counseling techniques. The physician survey elicited a profile that combines traditional and behavioral techniques—discussing smoking with patients, encouraging goal setting, suggesting specific steps for quitting, and presenting pamphlets. They refer to others infrequently and rarely report planning for follow-up about smoking. The experts rated these selected techniques as moderately to highly important. They favored a behavioral approach coupled with active follow-up. The major differences between physician and expert rankings were that the experts placed higher priority on planned follow-up and a lower priority on pamphlets. The uneven quality of counseling reported by physicians suggests that weighting their responses according to expert opinion would provide a more sensitive profile. Scaled weighting produced scores that may help researchers define a composite quality-quantity measure of activity.
ISSN:0306-4603
1873-6327
DOI:10.1016/0306-4603(91)90013-8