Attitudes and Practices of Family Physicians and Nurses in Evaluating Their Patients' Smoking Status: A Cross-sectional Study.

Abstract

Objective: The low quit rate of smokers without support increases the importance of very brief clinical interventions for smoking cessation. The aim of this study was to determine the attitudes and practices of family physicians and nurses in primary care in evaluating patients' smoking status.

Material and methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in family health centres in Aydın Efeler district between November and December 2020. A questionnaire developed on the basis of the "modified very brief clinical intervention (3A-OR)" model was used. Questionnaires were administered to all participants using the face-to-face method. In addition to descriptive statistical methods, univariate and multivariate analysis were performed. The statistical significance level was accepted as "P < 0.05".

Results: Fifty-nine family physicians and 64 nurses participated in the study. Of the participants, 62.6% were female and the mean age was 44.9 years. The most common practices of family physicians and nurses concerning learning their patients' smoking behaviour were to offer assistance to smokers (82.4%) and to recommend that they quit (81.3%). Family physicians and nurses mostly thought that it was their responsibility to refer their smoker patients to stop smoking counselling centres (71.6%) and to offer assistance (61.8%). Family physicians had a 3.12 times more positive attitude than nurses in evaluating the smoking status of the patients (P = 0.008).

Conclusion: Our study results have revealed that the positive attitudes of family physicians are not fully reflected in practice and that nurses generally do not adopt responsibilities related to evaluating patients' smoking habits, despite their efforts to make better practices.