November 7, 2003

Opportunity to help parents quit smoking neglected during pediatric visits

Children's outpatient visits offer an excellent opportunity to counsel parents about their own smoking and offer smoking cessation services. U.S. pediatricians and family practitioners, however, are not regularly discussing smoking with parents. These findings, by research teams based at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, are reported in two papers in the November 2003 issue of Pediatrics.

"Most physicians treating children are not intervening effectively with parents about smoking, and our research has shown that doing so is both feasible and welcomed by parents," says Jonathan Winickoff, MD, MPH, of the MGH Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy, lead author of both reports.

In collaboration with Children's Hospital, the research team surveyed parents bringing a child for outpatient care about their smoking status and invited smokers to participate in a free smoking cessation program. A significant majority took advantage of the program's services, including nicotine replacement. A follow-up survey found that up to 20 percent had successfully stopped smoking. All participants said the program should be widely offered.

A national telephone survey of parents, however, found that less than half had been asked about smoking by their child's physician. A third of smokers had been advised about the health risks, and only 40 percent had been advised to quit.

"There is a tremendous opportunity for both pediatricians and family practitioners to improve their activities in this area, which could lead to a tremendous benefit to child health," says Winickoff. MGH study coauthors are Valerie Buckley, James Perrin, MD, and Nancy Rigotti, MD.