Styles of Physician Advice About Smoking Cessation in College Students

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether young adult cigarette smokers who were in the precontemplation and contemplation stages of change for smoking cessation would differ in their evaluations of vignettes depicting 2 types of physician advice. Participants: Fifty-seven young adult cigarette smokers who were undergraduate students (49.1% female, mean age = 20.4 years) attending an urban university. Methods: Participants evaluated 2 written vignettes. Both vignettes depicted physicians using patient-centered communication styles. One vignette depicted a physician giving a patient direct advice to quit smoking and the other a physician using a motivational style of advice. Data were collected from September 2004 through May 2005. Results: Participants rated the motivational advice vignette as significantly more favorable compared to the direct advice vignette on all assessed dimensions (global satisfaction, general satisfaction, physician affective style, physician technical style, and physician communication style). Conclusion: Smokers preferred the motivational advice style to simple patent-centered advice.

Keywords:

• physician advice
• smoking cessation
• motivational advice
• direct advice

Acknowledgments

Dr Gemmell was a graduate student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, at the time this research was conducted. Dr DiClemente is professor and chair of the Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Notes

*The 3 expert raters rated this vignette as a 2, 3, and 5 on this dimension.

*Mean difference between the direct advice and the motivational advice vignettes is statistically significant at p = .04.

**Mean difference between the direct advice and the motivational advice vignettes is statistically significant at p < .001.