News Release

Asking Patients To Give Up Smoking Isn't Effective

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

(Qualitative study of patients' perceptions of doctors' advice to quite smoking: implications for opportunistic health promotion)

"Everyone knows the dangers of smoking now. It's not like it's a top secret....If that smoker doesn't want to stop smoking, the doctor could be there three hours talking to him and he'll walk out of the surgery....have a fag and think thank God for that." This was said by a 40 year old man who participated in a study conducted by Dr Christopher Butler et al from the University of Wales on how doctors can persuade their patients to stop smoking.

The authors found that most people are already aware of the negative effects of smoking and that they believe that it should be up to them whether they give up or not. In fact they discovered that the doctor-patient relationship can be damaged if doctors routinely advise all smokers to quit every time they visit the surgery.

Butler et al suggest that a better approach is for doctors to be sympathetic and tailor their approach to the individual type of patient rather than preaching messages of doom.

Contact:

Dr Christopher Butler, Lecturer, Department of General Practice, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff butlercc@cf.ac.uk

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