AIMS AND BACKGROUND: General practitioners could play a key role in preventive programs against @entity286 -related diseases. However, they seldom take action in the office even with minimal advice counselling. Such behaviour might reflect the lack of academic teaching and the lack of practice with motivational and dependence questionnaires, considered basic tools to help smokers to quit successfully. The study was aimed to investigate the awareness of a sample of Italian family doctors as regards @entity286 epidemiology and smoking cessation strategies. METHODS: A total of 428 family doctors were administered a questionnaire with a set of questions on their personal smoking habits and on personal initiatives in the office towards smokers. Another set of questions regarded their knowledge on @entity286 issues, with special attention to @entity1223 , which is widely perceived as a very dangerous poison and works as a motivational tool on smokers and adolescents. @entity1223 measurement was carried out on all @entity1 to obtain objective data on smoking and to show the feasibility of the test. RESULTS: The percentage of self-reported current smokers among general practitioners was 24%, with a high prevalence of ex-smokers (46%), and 29% of never smokers. Family doctors were more keen to counsel adolescents than adults about @entity286 , and they were very interested in continuing medical education on the issue. The doctors who took part in our study showed a surprising limited knowledge of all the issues associated with smoking cessation and prevention such as epidemiology, cigarette characteristics, success rate of smoking cessation programs, Fagerstr  m's tolerance questionnaire, safety of @entity1239 replacement therapy and the knowledge of @entity1223 as a product of cigarette smoke. CONCLUSIONS: The scenario depicted by our survey underscores the necessity to improve the knowledge and performance of primary care physicians on @entity286 -related issues in order to implement primary and secondary prevention in clinical practice.

XXXX , cigarettes and family doctors.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['participants'] @entity286 :: ('4097', 'Species') :: ['tobacco'] @entity1239 :: ('MESH:D009538', 'Chemical') :: ['nicotine'] @entity1223 :: ('MESH:D002248', 'Chemical') :: ['carbon monoxide', 'Carbon monoxide']
@entity1223 :: (MESH:D002248,Chemical) :: ['Carbon monoxide']
