Knowledge, Attitudes, and Smoking Behaviours among Physicians Specializing in Public Health: A Multicentre Study

Abstract

Background. Healthcare professionals have an important role to play both as advisers—influencing smoking cessation—and as role models. However, many of them continue to smoke. The aims of this study were to examine smoking prevalence, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours among four cohorts physicians specializing in public health, according to the Global Health Profession Students Survey (GHPSS) approach. Materials and Methods. A multicentre cross-sectional study was carried out in 24 Italian schools of public health. The survey was conducted between January and April 2012 and it was carried out a census of students in the selected schools for each years of course (from first to fourth year of attendance), therefore among four cohorts of physicians specializing in Public Health (for a total of n. 459 medical doctors). The GHPSS questionnaires were self-administered via a special website which is created ad hoc for the survey. Logistic regression model was used to identify possible associations with tobacco smoking status. Hosmer-Lemeshow test was performed. The level of significance was P ≤ 0.05. Results. A total of 388 answered the questionnaire on the website (85%), of which 81 (20.9%) declared to be smokers, 309 (79.6%) considered health professionals as behavioural models for patients, and 375 (96.6%) affirmed that health professionals have a role in giving advice or information about smoking cessation. Although 388 (89.7%) heard about smoking related issues during undergraduate courses, only 17% received specific smoking cessation training during specialization. Conclusions. The present study highlights the importance of focusing attention on smoking cessation training, given the high prevalence of smokers among physicians specializing in public health, their key role both as advisers and behavioural models, and the limited tobacco training offered in public health schools.

Effective tobacco control measures: agreement among medical students

“…The students in our sample were more aware of the importance of protecting people from secondhand tobacco smoke (95,2%) than were medical students in Germany (80%), Poland (74,5%), and Spain (73,9%). 7 ) In addition, they showed having sufficient knowledge about the damages caused by smoking, reporting that they had been taught and warned about the health risks of smoking at their medical school. This knowledge could have also come from public health policies; since 1988, Brazil has adopted health warnings on all packages of tobacco products.…”

Smoking habits among healthcare professionals in family medicine in Republic of Srpska

“…Istraživanja širom svijeta ukazuju na visoku prevalencu pušenja među zdravstvenim radnicima: u Jordanu (65%), Čileu (40,7%), dok je u susjednoj Italiji (39%) i Hrvatskoj (31%) prevalenca pušača među zdravstvenim radnicima značajno manja i odgovara našim rezultatima [14][15][16][17][18].…”

“…U kanadskoj studiji pušači su značajnije zainteresovani za učenje metoda podrške odvikavanja od pušenja duvana u poređenju sa nepušačima i onima koji su prestali pušiti ali i rjeđe savjetuju pacijente o procesu odvikavanja od pušenja duvana u odnosu na nepušače [24]. U našoj studiji više od četvrtine zdravstvenih radnika ima potrebu za učešćem u programu odvikavanja od pušenja duvana, što odgovara nalazima studija sprovedenim među zdravstvenim radnicima u drugim zemljama [16][17][18]21]. Studija sprovedena među porodičnim doktorima u edukativnom trening centru u Južnoj Floridi prikazuje da nije bilo značajne razlike u ponašanju i stavovima prema odvikavanju od pušenja duvana među ljekarima koji su završili trening program, ali su svakako familijarnost sa vodičima i nivo znanja značajno veći nakon treninga, što ukazuje na potrebu provođenja ovakvih edukaciju u praksi zdravstvenih radnika [25].…”

Prevalence of Smoking in Medical Students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ostrava

“…Zdravotníci hrají významnou roli v modelech odvykání kouření, protože široká veřejnost stále zastává ná-zor, že by zdravotníci měli jít svým životním stylem pří-kladem (16). Lékaři jsou neustále vzorem pro své pacienty a je tedy významné, zda lékaři a zdravotnický personál kouří.…”