Factors associated with the provision of anti-smoking advice by general practitioners

The acceptability of advice about smoking in the consultation has recently been questioned. We report a study that explored patients' attitudes to general practitioners' (GPs) anti-smoking advice and the characteristics of patients with whom GPs chose to discuss smoking. Patients who recalled the advice were generally positive about stopping smoking. This could be explained by the observation that GPs were more likely to advise smokers who perceived their problems to be smoking-related and were more motivated to stop smoking. The implications of this finding are discussed.