Prevalence of tobacco use and perceptions of student health professionals about cessation training: results from Global Health Professions Students Survey

Abstract

IntroductionHealth professionals play an important role in providing advice to their patients about tobacco prevention and cessation. Health professionals who use tobacco may be deterred from providing cessation advice and counselling to their patients. We aimed to provide prevalence estimates of tobacco use among student health professionals and describe their attitudes towards tobacco cessation training.MethodsCountry-wise aggregate data from the Global Health Professions Student Survey on ‘current cigarette smoking’ (smoking cigarettes on 1 or more days during the past 30 days), and ‘current use of tobacco products other than cigarettes’ (chewing tobacco, snuff, bidis, cigars or pipes, 1 or more days during the past 30 days) were analysed. For each WHO region, we estimated mean prevalence rates of tobacco use weighted by the population of the sampling frame and aggregate proportions for ‘health professionals’ role’ and ‘cessation training’ indicators using ‘metaprop’ command on Stata V.11.ResultsA total of 107 527 student health professionals participated in 236 surveys done in four health profession disciplines spanning 70 countries with response rates ranging from 40% to 100%. Overall, prevalence of smoking was highest in European countries (20% medical and 40% dental students) and the Americas (13% pharmacy to 23% dental students). Other tobacco use was higher in eastern Mediterranean (10%–23%) and European countries (7%–13%). In most WHO regions, ≥70% of the students agreed that health professionals are role models, and have a role in advising about smoking cessation to their patients and the public. Only ≤33% of all student health professionals in most WHO regions (except 80% dental students in the Eastern Mediterranean region) had received formal training on smoking cessation approaches and ≥80% of all students agreed that they should receive formal cessation training.ConclusionsTobacco control should take place together with medical educators to discourage tobacco use among student health professionals and implement an integrated smoking cessation training into health professions’ curricula.

Prevalence of tobacco use, exposure to secondhand smoke and knowledge on smoking cessation among students of health professions in Central Greece: a cross-sectional study

“…10 Countrywide aggregate data from the GHPSS published in 2018 found the highest prevalence of current smoking in European countries (20% medical and 40% dental students) and use of other tobacco products higher in eastern Mediterranean (10%-23%) and European countries (7%-13%). 13 In 2011, the Greek GHPSS study found the prevalence of current smoking among SHP to be 28.8% among pharmacy students, 46.4% among health visitor students and 3 The extremely high rate of exposure to secondhand smoke at least 1 day per week (96.5% in public places and 41.4% at home) corroborate previous studies from Greece, 11 14 and indicate the urgent need for enforcement of tobacco banning policies in enclosed public places throughout the country. The existence of laws banning smoking in school buildings does not appear to affect the rates of smoking in these buildings, which is reflected through the high rates of exposure to secondhand smoke on the school campus (84.1% in the school cafeteria and 77.4% in school buildings).…”

“…However, other SHPs such as veterinarians, paramedics, biochemists and others may also play a role in tobacco use cessation. 13 The main objectives of this study were to assess the prevalence of current smoking and secondhand smoke among various groups of SHPs in Central Greece; to identify independent risk factors of current smoking; and to compare knowledge on tobacco cessation methods among different schools of health professions.…”

Smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke among health occupations students in Iran

“…In this regard, our findings are compatible with the results of the study conducted by Meysamie et al 21 . Meanwhile, it is common to observe such a difference between male and female students in other countries as well 22,23 . Focusing on dental students, the status of current cigarette smoking seems much more alarming at SBUMS (52.0%) compared to the status reported at the national level (10.8%) by Keshavarz et al 15 .…”

COVID-19, head and neck cancer, and the need of training of health students and practitioners regarding to tobacco control and patient counseling

“…Several countries have already applied this survey, pointing out that more than 80% of health students find that health professionals have a role in counseling patients about smoking cessation. However, less than 40% of students reported having received any formal training on tobacco cessation approaches and smoking counseling during their professional education [9]. Recently, we evidenced that 95.5% of dental students mentioned having knowledge about the harmful effects of tobacco during their training.…”