Why do physicians lack engagement with smoking cessation treatment in their COPD patients? A multinational qualitative study

• Main Authors: Eva Anne Marije van Eerd, Mette Bech Risør, Mark Spigt, Maciek Godycki-Cwirko, Elena Andreeva, Nick Francis, Anja Wollny, Hasse Melbye, Onno van Schayck, Daniel Kotz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2017-06-01
• Series: npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41533-017-0038-6

Chronic lung disease: Changing attitudes to help patients stop smoking Doctors should be given careful, ethically-informed guidance during medical training to help them to support patients to quit smoking. The most important part of treatment for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is help to stop smoking. However, there is evidence to suggest that doctors don’t always motivate COPD patients to quit. Eva Anne Marije van Eerd at Maastrict University, The Netherlands, together with an international team of scientists, conducted focus group interviews with doctors in seven different countries to assess barriers to smoking cessation. They found that doctors’ frustration with and negative attitudes towards patients who continued to smoke contributed to poor cessation management and treatment inequalities in some cases. Many doctors also cited a lack of experience with smoking cessation techniques alongside time and money issues as barriers to effective treatment.