General Practitioners (GPs) who smoke are less likely to advise their patients to quit, new research from Federation University has found, revealing how doctors' own smoking behaviours can influence patient care.

Author of the study and medical doctor Dr Masud Salehin, a Federation PhD candidate, examined the relationship between GPs’ smoking status, their attitudes towards quitting and their use of evidence-based cessation strategies.

Dr Salehin said current GP smokers were 87 per cent less likely to agree that GPs serve as role models and 89 per cent less likely to believe that GP advice improves a patient’s chances of quitting.

The study also found that GPs who currently smoke are four times more likely to believe that they are less effective at encouraging patients to quit, compared to their non-smoking colleagues.

These attitudes flowed through to their clinical practice, with GPs who smoked typically spending less than two minutes on smoking cessation consultations, while former smokers spent more than two minutes providing quitting advice.

Former smokers also demonstrated substantially greater familiarity with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ recommended ‘5As’ smoking cessation tool – Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange – compared with current-smoking GPs who showed a significantly lower likelihood of being familiar with the evidence-based approach.

“GPs play a vital role in helping people quit smoking, but this research shows that doctors’ own smoking behaviours can influence how confident they feel in providing that support,” Dr Salehin said.

“The findings suggest that previous experience quitting smoking among GPs may be associated with increased awareness and familiarity with evidence-based support.”

“Supporting healthcare professionals to quit smoking themselves and strengthening their training in smoking cessation may help to ensure they are equipped to deliver the most effective support to patients."

The research surveyed 178 GPs across Australia and found a daily smoking rate of 7.3 per cent among respondents, compared to 10.6 per cent of the adult population at the time.

Despite knowing the potential health impacts of smoking, just 15 per cent of GP smokers reported attempting to quit in the previous 12 months.

Four out of five GPs who participated in the study received no formal training in counselling smokers.

Dr Salehin said public health initiatives had often overlooked the influence of health professionals’ smoking behaviours on patients.

“While smoking rates among GPs were lower than in the general population, targeted support to help doctors quit is vital, particularly given their crucial role in promoting smoking cessation within the community,” he said.

While cigarettes were the most common form of smoking, some GPs also used vapes and water pipes.

The research found many GPs viewed smoking as a personal choice, citing it provided relief from anxiety and social pressure.

“Current smokers expressed desire but lacked a clear intention to quit, with older male GPs more likely to be smokers,” Dr Salehin said.

“This study suggests that GPs need capacity-building training for adequate smoking cessation support, and that a GP’s own smoking status should be considered in the design of training programs.

“Supporting GPs to quit smoking and strengthening their capacity to deliver effective cessation advice will ultimately benefit patients and contribute to reducing smoking-related harm across the community.”

The PhD study was supervised by Federation University public health expert Professor Dr Muhammad Aziz Rahman.