Beliefs and practices regarding electronic cigarettes in smoking cessation among healthcare professionals in Slovenia

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Electronic cigarettes (ECs) have generated extensive discussion about their role in smoking cessation. The Slovenia National Institute of Public Health's recommendations state that ECs are not to be recommended for smoking cessation or reduction. The aim of this study was to explore how healthcare professionals working in the field of preventive healthcare and smoking cessation in Slovenia communicate with and counsel patients regarding electronic cigarettes and smoking cessation or reduction. METHODS A cross-sectional, web-based survey was conducted among healthcare professionals working in the field of preventive healthcare and smoking cessation in Slovenia. A total of 479 healthcare professionals were included in the analysis. RESULTS While a minority of participants (12.7%) do or would recommend electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation or reduction in general, a higher proportion of participants (33.1%) would recommend electronic cigarettes to specific groups of patients. Knowledge on electronic cigarettes was the key determinant of differences in recommendations. Only a minority of participants (9.1%) reported availability of workplace guidelines/recommendations regarding counselling about electronic cigarettes. CONCLUSIONS Training programmes, educational materials and existing guidelines/ recommendations regarding counselling about electronic cigarette use should be provided and distributed among healthcare professionals, together with efforts to ensure compliance to official guidelines/recommendations.

General practitioners’ knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices surrounding the prescription of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation: a mixed-methods systematic review.

“…Of the 25 included articles, 18 were quantitative (18-35), 6 were qualitative (36-41) and 1 used mixed methods (42). The majority of studies were conducted in the US (19, 21, 22, 26-29, 31, 32, 35-37, 39, 40, 42), four were conducted in the UK (18, 25,38,41) and one each from Belgium (33), China (20), Greece (24), Iran (30), Poland (34) and Slovenia (23).…”

“…Participants quali cations or medical specialities included family physicians/family medicine/family practice/general practitioners/general physicians/primary care physicians (18-42) (this group of participants will be referred to as GPs in this review) and GP trainees (25). Many papers included ndings from multiple specialities such as physician assistants (32,36), nurses/nurse practitioners (23,24,28,32,36,41), internal medicine (19,21,22,26,29,37,39), emergency medicine (19), preliminary and transitional medicine (19), medical professionals (unde ned) (30), midwives (23,38), obstetricians/gynaecologists (19,22,39,40), cardiologists (19,20,24,30,31,40), neurologists (19,21), psychiatrists (21,22), plastic surgeons (19), general surgeons (19,21,22,26), pulmonologists/respiratory physicians (19,21,24,26,30,31,…”

“…Overall, from the 25 articles that were included in this systematic review the vast majority of HCPs which included GPs in these reports were not con dent in their abilities to have discussions or counsel patients on e-cigarettes and were not con dent in their level of knowledge to answer patient queries regarding e-cigarettes (26, 29). Eleven studies did not nd HCPs would recommend e-cigarettes for smoking cessation (19,23,24,29,(33)(34)(35)(39)(40)(41)(42), ve studies recommended them (22,26,27,31,37), two were supportive (20,25), one remained cautious (18), one reported participants as having mixed views (38), one saw a role for e-cigarettes (21), one believed e-cigarettes are appropriate (30) and, three did not mention recommendations as this was not surveyed in the studies (28, 32, 36).…”

“…Despite the mixed views about use of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid, the majority of studies included in this review did not agree that e-cigarettes should be recommended as a smoking cessation treatment (19,23,24,29,(33)(34)(35)(39)(40)(41)(42). In saying that, one study did nd that if patients asked about e-cigarettes, GPs, would recommend them regardless of the lack of research and evidence behind the effectiveness and safety of the product (31).…”

“…Findings from eighteen quantitative studies were included in the synthesis(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35). From the eighteen quantitative papers six articles used validated instruments(18, 26,29,30,34,35), three articles used instruments that were cognitively tested (26, 28, 29) and 11 articles adapted questions from other published studies(18-21, 23, 28, 29, 33-35, 43).…”