# PHYSICIAN COUNSELING FOR SMOKING CESSATION

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 1987 · $473,598

## Abstract

We have developed a comprehensive program to help physicians advise smokers
to quit.  The program includes:  1) a seminar which will teach physicians
about smoking cessation and use role-playing to improve their advice; and
2) a program of office-based counseling which identifies smokers by an
intake questionnaire that asks about their smoking habits and
smoking-related symptoms; individualized counseling from the physician
about the benefits of quitting; a prescription from the physician for a
date to quit; a booklet about quitting and instructions for physicians and
patients in the appropriate use of nicotine gum.  To minimize relapses,
patients will make a one-month follow-up visit to reinforce their
motivation to quit and learn skills to stay abstinent.  To encourage
physicians to continue to advise smokers, the program will include 1)
"booster" conference calls between physicians and their seminar
instructors, 2) a cumulative log of smokers who have accepted dates to quit
and 3) postcards from patients who have successfully quit.

We will undertake a randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that
physicians who receive this program will achieve significantly higher
long-term abstinence rates among their smoking patients than will those who
do not receive the program.  One hundred primary care physicians in private
practice in San Francisco and 100 internists from six Kaiser-Permanente
Medical Groups will be randomly allocated to receive the program or serve
as controls.  Twenty smokers randomly drawn from each physician's practice
will be interviewed about their smoking habits 12 and 24 months after their
entry into the study.  We will measure expired carbon monoxide and saliva
thiocyanate to verify abstinence.  Our study has a power of at least .80 to
detect a 5.6% difference in rates of abstinence between the experimental
and control groups.  We will also analyze the efficacy of the program in
different subgroups of physicians and patient, identify predictors of
physician efficacy in counseling and predictors of patients success in
quitting and describe changes in physicians knowledge, attitude and
behavior that result from the seminars.

If the program is proven to be effective, it will be entirely applicable to
other health care settings.  It will also provide a basis for further study
and analysis of the effectiveness of its individual components.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3176486
- **Project number:** 5R01CA038374-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **SAM.gov UEI:** KMH5K9V7S518
- **Principal Investigator:** Thomas J. Coates
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $473,598
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1984-07-01 → 1989-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3176486

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3176486, PHYSICIAN COUNSELING FOR SMOKING CESSATION (5R01CA038374-04). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3176486. Licensed CC0.

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