Knowledge, attitude, and behaviors of health professionals towards smoking cessation in primary healthcare settings

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the behaviors of multiple health professionals in primary healthcare settings in Jordan towards smoking cessation counseling and to determine the barriers to effective smoking cessation behaviors. A survey of 456 health professionals in primary healthcare settings was conducted. A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect the data. About half of health professionals reported that they usually ask patients about smoking status and advise them to stop smoking (51.4% and 50.5%, respectively). Only 23.7% reported assessing the willingness of the patients to quit smoking and 17.9% reported discussing counseling options with smokers. Considerably fewer percentages of health professionals reported preparing their patients for withdrawal symptoms (6.0%), discussing pharmacotherapies (3.8%), and prescribing nicotine patches (6.4%). Key barriers to smoking cessation counseling, as reported by health professionals, included: insufficient resources and organizational support, limited coverage of cessation interventions, and lack of motivation to quit. Smoking cessation counseling was not routinely implemented by Jordanian health professionals. Barriers to effective delivery of smoking cessation counseling need to be integrated within relevant strategies aiming at enhancing the frequency and quality of health professionals' engagement in smoking cessation.

Brief tobacco cessation interventions: Practices, opinions, and attitudes of healthcare professionals

“…Nevertheless, guidelines recommend the delivery of all the 5As, irrespective of whether smokers are motivated to quit or not 6 . Unlike what was reported in some studies 24,[26][27][28] , doctors in our study did not outperform the other healthcare professionals in all the 5As. Nonetheless, doctors were more likely to have counselled an increased number of patients, than other professionals during the previous week.…”

“…The inconsistent delivery of all of the 5As was acknowledged in international literature [24][25][26][27][28] . A similar trend in the delivery of the 5As was reported in a study amongst hospital health workers in Catalonia, Spain 26 .…”

“…Cessation 2020;6(August):48 https://doi.org/10.18332/tpc/125353 of participating healthcare professionals (except for pharmacists) to enable comparison between groups of professionals. No oral healthcare professionals participated in this study, however various other studies have included these professionals 24,27,28 . As the data on the delivery of tobacco cessation interventions were self-reported, the results may not be an accurate assessment of the actual interventions.…”

Smoking Cessation Counseling: Attitude in the Background of Poor Practice Compliance among Palestinian Primary Health Care Physicians: A cross sectional study

“…The questionnaire was constructed after an extensive literature review. [2,7,[13][14][15]] Some of its domains were taken from pre-validated tools which were adopted with the permission of corresponding authors. [7,16] To ensure validity and reliability of the tool, a pilot study and pre-testing of the questionnaire was conducted using a sample of 20 PHC physicians'.…”

Good practice regarding smoking cessation management in Spain: Challenges and opportunities for primary care physicians and nurses

“…A finding that was also evaluated among 456 PC professionals in Jordan, which showed that 51.4% asked about smoking and 50.5% advised cessation. Nevertheless, only 23.7% evaluated willingness to give up smoking, and a mere 17.9% explained different counselling options 21 .…”