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The impact of shared medical records on smoking awareness and behavior in ambulatory care

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Abstract

In a randomized controlled trial of sharing medical records with ambulatory adults as part of periodic health examinations, 193 patients (experimental group; 37 smokers) received copies of their medical records while 208 patients (control group; 50 smokers) did not. Awareness of smoking as a health problem and smoking behavior were assessed two weeks and six months later. At two weeks, 46% of experimental group smokers indicated that smoking was a major health problem, compared with 21% of the control group (p<0.02), and 43% of the experimental group had quit or reduced smoking, compared with 20% of the control group (p<0.02). At six months smoking problem awareness was not significantly different (33% experimental group vs. 14% control group, p=NS), but 65% of the experimental group had quit or reduced compared with 29% of the control group (p<0.04). Sharing medical records with smokers after periodic health examinations is effective in enhancing patient awareness of smoking as a health problem and beginning the process of changing smoking behavior.

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Received from the General Internal Medicine Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont.

Supported by Grant HS 04090 from the National Center for Health Services Research.

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Bronson, D.L., O’Meara, K. The impact of shared medical records on smoking awareness and behavior in ambulatory care. J Gen Intern Med 1, 34–37 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02596322

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02596322

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