Self-Efficacy for Smoking Cessation Counseling Parents in Primary Care: An Office-Based Intervention for Pediatricians and Family Physicians

Few pediatricians or family physicians routinely counsel parental smokers to quit smoking. Poor self-efficacy in smoking cessation counseling skills may be one barrier to counseling. Analysis of self-efficacy scores of physicians participating in the Clean Air for Healthy Children program demonstrates that pediatricians had higher self-efficacy scores for explaining the health risks of environmental tobacco smoke on children (P < .05); family physicians had higher self-efficacy scores for smoking cessation counseling knowledge (P < .05). Posttraining, both pediatricians and family physicians who participated in an office-based smoking cessation counseling program had significantly higher scores in all 4 self-efficacy domains (P < .01).