[Methodology used in the original articles on smoking in 4 Spanish medical journals (1985-1996)]

Planning being the one factor entailed in doing any research that has the greatest bearing on the quality of the findings thereof, and the cigarette smoking habit being a prime topic for research, a description is provided of the methodological aspects of the original articles on the cigarette smoking habit which have been published in four Spanish medical journals.

A descriptive study was conducted regarding the original articles on the cigarette smoking habit from Spanish centers which were published in 1985-1996 in the journals Atención Primaria (Primary Care), Medicina Clínica (Clinical Medicine) (Barcelona), Revista Española de Salud Pública (Spanish Public Health Journal) and Revista Clínica Española (Spanish Clinical Journal).

Most of the 154 original articles studied dealt with the topics of smoking patterns (31.8%) and the cigarette smoking habit as a risk factor (27.3%) and were conducted within a municipal scope (41.7%) or provincial scope (36.1%) with subjects from primary care (71.6%) who visited the doctor (20.8%) falling within the age 25-65 group (30.4%) or over age 15 (27.0%). Surveys were used for collecting the data (38.3%) and were conducted throughout a 12-month period (24.5%) or longer (19.3%). The types most frequently used were descriptive (67.5%), retrospective (79.2%) and cross-sectional (81.8%).

Spanish research on the cigarette smoking habit must cover certain subjects which have not been dealt with in sufficient depth and must invest greater care regarding certain methodological aspects which will improve the quality of the publications, this being a need also brought to fore in other studies.