Chinese physicians' cigarette smoking habits and their anti-smoking counselling practices

A survey of Chinese physicians' cigarette smoking habits and their counselling of patients to quit smoking was carried out in two provincial hospitals in Wuhan, capital city of Hubei province, People's Republic of China. All 559 physicians in the two hospitals were given the questionnaire, of which 86% (480) returned their completed questionnaires. Of the 480 physicians, 50.9% of the males, and 4.8% of the females were current cigarette smokers. The majority of physicians (85.6%) had counselled their patients about cigarette smoking in the past year, although few physicians (2.9%) felt that they were very successful in helping patients to quit smoking. The frequency of physicians' anti-smoking counselling was significantly correlated with a number of variables: physicians' own smoking status; whether they perceived themselves as the most influential people in helping patients to quit smoking; whether physicians thought that they were successful in their past counselling practices; and physicians' age.