[Smoking habit questionnaire for outpatients]

During September 1992, outpatients of a general hospital received questionnaire on medical smoking cessation advice and smoking habit assessment by a physician. The staff of the Internal Medicine Service were asked about the frequency of outpatient smoking habit assessment. Of 185 patients interviewed, 37% were smokers, 38.5% were ex-smokers and 24.5% had never smoked; 46% of smokers reported that they had been told to quit smoking by a physician. Those who smoked more cigarettes per day were more likely to have been advised to stop. Of ex-smokers, 16% said that they had received medical aid for quitting. The frequency of smoking habit assessment was; in every physician-patient contact 20%, sometimes 36%, hardly ever 12% and 32% said that they were never questioned about smoking habits (Table 2). Those who reported to have been counseled to quit, were more likely to report smoking habit assessment (Table 3). Of physicians, 81% reported assessing routinely all ambulatory patients' smoking habit. Smoking prevalence among physicians was 43.3%, and 23.3% of them smoked in the office. These findings on the frequency of physicians' smoking advice are similar to those of Anda et al and Frank et al (Table 4).

1) physician's smoking cessation advice and smoking habits assessment reported by patients were low, 2) physicians report higher frequency of smoking habit assessment than patients, 3) physicians' smoking prevalence was higher than patients' prevalence. As a first approach to increase medical interventions against smoking, quitting programs directed to health personnel must be implemented.