The experience of general practitioners with Very Brief Advice in the treatment of tobacco addiction.

Although tobacco smoking is the world's most important preventable cause of many chronic diseases (including COPD and asthma) and premature death, many physicians do not routinely apply smoking cessation in the daily health care of their patients. Two widely felt important concerns of physicians are that smoking cessation as part of a treatment is time-consuming and may jeopardize their relationship with patients. Very Brief Advice (VBA) is a non-confrontational method, which could assist general practitioners (GPs) as a simple, quick first step in getting patients to stop smoking.

What motivates general practitioners to change practice behaviour? A qualitative study of audit and feedback group sessions in Dutch general practice.

Objectives: Adopting an attributional perspective, the current article investigates how audit and feedback group sessions contribute to general practitioners' (GPs) motivation to change their practice behaviour to improve care. We focus on the contributions of the audit and feedback itself (content) and the group discussion (process).

Methods: Four focus groups, comprising a total of 39 participating Dutch GPs, discussed and compared audit and feedback of their practices.

Foot ulceration and lower limb amputation in type 2 diabetic patients in dutch primary health care.

Objective: To determine the incidence of foot ulceration and lower limb amputation in type 2 diabetic patients in primary health care.

Research Design And Methods: Data on type 2 diabetes were collected by the Nijmegen Monitoring Project between 1993 and 1998 as part of a study of chronic diseases. The records of all patients recorded as having diabetic foot problems and those who died, moved to a nursing home, or were under specialist care were included.