The pediatric residency training on tobacco project: Baseline findings from the patient tobacco survey

Background Few pediatricians address tobacco in the patients they treat, and pediatric residency training programs are not preparing them to meet the tobacco challenge. The Pediatric Residency Training on Tobacco Project is a 4-year randomized prospective study of the effectiveness of training pediatric residents to intervene on tobacco in patients and parents. In the present report, we present findings from the Baseline Patient Tobacco Survey. Methods Fifteen pediatric residency-training programs were assigned randomly to Special and Standard Training Conditions. The Baseline Patient Tobacco Survey, which was administered to a representative sample of patients, ages 12–21, at the start of the study, addressed background characteristics, family and peer smoking behavior, rules about smoking in the home and elsewhere, patient smoking behavior, attitudes towards quitting, other forms of tobacco use, knowledge and beliefs about smoking, and resident intervention on tobacco. Results Patients associated with the Special and Standard Training sites were similar with respect to demographic characteristics, smoking behavior, attitudes and knowledge, and receipt of resident intervention on ETS, prevention of smoking onset, and smoking cessation. About 60% of the patients indicated that their resident asked about smoking, 44% indicated their resident talked with them about not starting to smoke, and 23% of the current smokers indicated that their resident offered to help them stop smoking. Conclusion The findings from the Baseline Patient Tobacco Survey describe the characteristics of the population under study, indicate that the two experimental groups were similar at the start of the program, and underscore the need to prepare pediatric residents to address tobacco.