'Why do we have to be the gatekeepers?' Australian general practitioners' knowledge, attitudes and prescribing intentions on e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid

Selamoglu, Melis; Erbas, Bircan; Wilson, Hester; Barton, Chris

doi:10.1186/s12875-024-02292-w

'Why do we have to be the gatekeepers?' Australian general practitioners' knowledge, attitudes and prescribing intentions on e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid

journal contribution

posted on 2025-03-19, 05:23 authored by Melis Selamoglu, Bircan ErbasBircan Erbas, Hester Wilson, Chris Barton

Background: A significant policy change impacting the availability of nicotine for use in electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) in Australia took effect from October 1, 2021. This change meant that nicotine containing liquids for use with e-cigarettes would only be available by prescription from a medical practitioner as part of a smoking cessation plan. This study aimed to explore general practitioners (GPs) perceptions about the role of e-cigarettes, and understand factors informing their intentions to prescribe e-cigarettes as part of a smoking cessation plan.

Methods: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen GPs. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit participants. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was used to classify, describe and report themes in the data. QSR NVivo was used to aid coding, thematic analysis and retrieval of quotes.

Results: Participants had diverse views on recommending and prescribing e-cigarettes as smoking cessation aids to patients. Some participants were willing to prescribe e-cigarettes to patients if other methods of smoking cessation had not worked but there were concerns, and uncertainty, about the safety and efficacy of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation. There was poor understanding of the current policy and legislation about e-cigarettes in Australia. Mostly the participants in this sample did not feel confident or comfortable to prescribe, or have discussions about e-cigarettes with patients.

Conclusion: The participants of this study held diverse attitudes on recommending and prescribing e-cigarettes for smoking cessation. Clarity in guidelines and consumer product information are required to enable GPs to provide consistent and accurate advice to patients that wish to use e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid.

Funding

We would like to thank all the general practitioners that took the time to participate in this study and to all the Practice-Based Research Networks in particular GoldNet, MonRen and VicRen for assisting in participant recruitment. MS is supported by a Departmental Scholarship at Monash University, Victoria, Australia.

History

Publication Date

2024-02-07

Journal

BMC Primary Care

Volume

25

Issue

1

Article Number

53

Pagination

10p.

Publisher

Springer Nature

ISSN

2731-4553

Rights Statement

© The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.