ABSTRACT
The general practitioner can be of fundamental importance in helping the population to change unhealthy behavior that can lead to negative health effects, since he or she is the principal reference point for their health. Since the population that was the object of the intervention is the same as the Istituto Centrale di Statistica (ISTAT) sample, although counseling activities differed, the wide diversity between the data suggests that the process was effective. In the case of smoking cessation, the evaluation was obtained by comparing the quitting rate achieved after counseling with respect to the natural quitting rate in the Veneto region according to data provided by ISTAT. As far as smoking is concerned, numerous studies have shown that doctors can influence their patients’ habits significantly. Once the intervention got under way, the observations were carried out periodically to register the degree of achievement of the specific targets in relation to morbidity and smoking behavior.
