General practitioner and obstetrician views on system changes to improve smoking cessation care in pregnancy in Australia: A cross-sectional survey

Gillian Sandra Gould*, Simon Chiu, Christopher Oldmeadow, Yael Bar-Zeev

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

IntroductionSystemic barriers impacting smoking cessation in pregnant women may include nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) access and training.AimAssess general practitioner (GP) and obstetrician's agreement with system-based changes to improve the management of smoking in pregnancy; compare group responses.MethodsNational cross-sectional survey with two samples: (1) online survey emailed to a random sample of 500 GPs from Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP); (2) paper survey posted to 5571 GPs and obstetricians from Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG). Percentages agreeing that specified changes would improve the management of smoking in pregnancy were calculated. Pairwise comparisons used Kruskal-Wallis tests (RACGP/RANZCOG GPs/obstetricians).ResultsN = 378 participated. Response rates 8.4% (N = 42; online survey) and 6% (N = 335; paper survey), respectively. Total percentages agreeing with system-based changes: 79% training, 64% oral NRT subsidy, 62% Medicare item for smoking cessation, 54% improved access to NRT patches. Within RANZCOG, more GPs (73.1%) agreed that oral NRT should be subsidised (P = 0.001) than obstetricians (53.7%).ConclusionGPs and obstetricians agreed that system changes would improve their management of smoking in pregnancy. Oral NRT subsidy was the only pairwise group difference. Subsequently, oral NRT has been subsidised; in time, this may influence prescribing and quit rates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)136–142
JournalJournal of Smoking Cessation
Volume15
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Keywords

  • Clinician training
  • nicotine replacement therapy
  • pregnancy
  • smoking cessation
  • system changes

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