Frequency of alcohol and smoking cessation counseling in hepatitis C patients among internists and gastroenterologists

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

12-21-2009

Journal

World Journal of Gastroenterology

Volume

15

Issue

47

DOI

10.3748/wjg.15.6010

Keywords

Alcohol; Counseling; Hepatitis C virus; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Smoking

Abstract

Given the overwhelming evidence that both alcohol consumption and smoking accelerate the progression of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-induced liver disease, we evaluated the frequency of alcohol and smoking counseling of patients with HCV-induced liver disease by their primary care internists and gastroenterologists. One hundred and twenty-three medical records of consecutive patients with HCV-induced liver disease referred by an internist to a gastroenterologist for its management were reviewed. Patient gender, race, history of and counseling against alcohol and tobacco use by a physician and a gastroenterologist were obtained. A database was created using Microsoft Excel. There were 105 African-Americans, 12 Caucasians and six patients of other races/ethnicities. Forty-six (37%) patients were daily tobacco users and 34 (28%) patients were daily alcohol consumers. There was a statistically significant difference in the frequencies of alcohol ( P = 0.0002) and smoking cessation ( P = 0.0022) between gastroenterologists and internists. This study reveals that internists and gastroenterologists, alike, inadequately counsel patients with hepatitis C about tobacco and alcohol use. © 2009 The WJG Press and Baishideng. All rights reserved.

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