Small Reminder, Big Result
May 08, 2009 in Research Findings
As beacons for good health, doctors don’t need constant reminders to promote healthy lifestyle changes in their patients. Encouraging better health part of the job description, right? Well, a study from the Archives of Internal Medicine found that giving doctors a small reminder can make a big difference for patients who smoke.
In a one-year randomized trial of 26 primary care practices, researchers implemented smoking status icons and tobacco treatment reminders on electronic patient records. A “Tobacco Smart Form” was also implemented into the record system to encourage patient coordination with smoking cessation counselors.
A total of 9,589 patients were enrolled in the study, half of whom were in a control group. Patients whose doctors received the reminders were 13 times as likely to meet with a smoking cessation counselor, and 2.8 times as likely to quit smoking by the end of the one-year study.
Small behavioral changes, like increasing activity and quitting smoking, bestow long term health benefits. As electronic medical records work their way towards prevalence in the health care system, strategies like ’smoking status icons’ can be implemented cheaply and easily, thus facilitating cost-effective and favorable heath outcomes. Sometimes a simple reminder can go a long way.
Source: Archives of Internal Medicine, April 27, 2009.
May 20th, 2009 on 10:21 am
It is like that ‘a small reminder can surely go a long way’.Action plans like the above ones must be executed to eradicate smoking and other ill practices from the society.And,hence it is the responsibility of the doctors along with the citizens to win over these practices.Therefor,a doctor advice might be very effective in many ways….